Una crisi idrica in Bulgaria è un avvertimento per l’Europa

*From Bloomberg News reporters Irina Vilcu and Slav Okov:*

Across much of Europe, water scarcity is a growing concern, with more frequent droughts driven by climate change exacerbating problems caused by aging infrastructure. In Bulgaria, the water network — largely built four decades ago by the communist government — is poorly maintained and resources badly managed. Modernization has been sluggish and underfunded, and organizations including the World Bank say the sector is prone to rampant corruption.

As a national crisis escalates, bathing, flushing toilets and washing clothes and dishes is now difficult from around June to September for as many as half a million people — or 8% of the population — in roughly a third of the country, according to environmental organizations. Authorities were rationing supplies for more than 260,000 people in 283 villages and several towns as of Aug. 17. Sunflower and corn yields — key agricultural exports — may fall to the lowest level in decades amid curbs on irrigation. Farmers say caring for livestock is getting harder.

Without “cardinal change” Bulgaria’s entire water system will collapse, deepening inequality in the European Union’s poorest member state, with rising water and food prices as well as risks to public health, according to Emil Gachev, head of the Waters department at the Climate, Atmosphere and Waters Research Institute at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

We are having losses of up to 60% in the delivery system, all that cost is handed off to the consumers, so the companies have zero incentive to improve their systems.

Also, the state is so corrupt that anything is siphoned away for profit and no measures are taken until the situation becomes a disaster.