SOFIA, July 22 (Xinhua) -- A national forum on Bulgaria's water sector has called for urgent reforms to tackle the challenges posed by climate change.
Atanas Kostadinov, Bulgaria's deputy minister of environment and water, emphasized at the "Challenges that Cannot Wait -- Dialogue and Solutions for the Bulgarian Water Sector" forum on Tuesday that merely discussing these issues is no longer sufficient.
He highlighted the seriousness of climate change and its impact, including causing water scarcity and drought.
"But it's too late to just say that. There's no time to just make that observation," Kostadinov said at the event, organized by the Bulgarian Water Association (BWA).
The processes have developed so dynamically in a negative way that not only the resources that were the basis of the economy, but also natural resources such as water that are the basis of existence are being threatened and destroyed, he said.
Bulgaria has failed to fulfil the tasks of the European directive on urban wastewater treatment, and has not had great success in implementing water policy either, the deputy minister added.
Integrated water management or an integrated approach to water sector management has not been developed much in practice in Bulgaria, "so there is a lot to be desired in terms of integrated water use," he said.
During the forum, BWA proposed the implementation of measures including the preparation of a national action plan to reduce water losses.
Developing a national program for the reuse of treated wastewater is another possible measure, BWA's chairman Ivan Ivanov said. Unlike in the rest of Europe, in Bulgaria there is no mass implementation of this option, Ivanov said.
Atanas Paskalev, a board member at BWA, said that improving the efficiency of water and sewerage companies and reducing financial losses from the malicious actions of unethical customers through the use of artificial intelligence (AI) are another option.
According to the Bulgarian Water and Sewerage Holding, which supplies drinking water to 74 percent of the country's population, last year recorded a peak in water shortages. ■
