New Pipeline to Pernik Is Completed

A 13.5-km pipeline from the village of Malo Buchino to the city of Pernik has been completed, said the local water utility. The pipeline is being tested. Afterwards it will be disinfected and within days water will begin to be pumped through it.

The facility has been built by the state-owned consortium Montazhi and is worth over 25 million leva.

On December 21 a state of emergency was declared in Pernik after  water from the local water reservoir Studena had been rationed for nearly a month. In January the water level in Studena became critically low.

The then environment minister Neno Dimov was charged with deliberate mismanagement over the water crisis and has been in custody since January 9. At the end of January the former head of the water utility in Pernik Ivan Vitanov was charged with mismanagement too, while former deputy mayor and acting mayor of Pernik Sevdelina Kovacheva was charged with malfeasance in office.

To solve the water crisis in Pernik, the government decided to build a pipeline which would supply the city with water from the collection area of Belmeken Dam.

The new facility will allow water rationing in Pernik to be eased because of the situation with the coronavirus. The new water schedule will apply to 11 settlements in the municipality
of Pernik.

Mayor Stanislav Vladimirov thanked the Sofia Municipal Council which cleared Pernik's connection to the water network of the capital Sofia. NV/PP

Source:BTA