A Water Crisis in Bulgaria Is a Warning for Europe

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1. *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.

2. paywall…

3. >Among the EU countries, Croatia recorded the highest renewable freshwater resources (with a long-term average of 30 700 m³ per inhabitant), followed by Finland (19 700 m³), Estonia (18 700 m³) Latvia (17 900 m³) and Sweden (17 500 m³).

   [Source](https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Water_statistics)

   I wonder if we are going to see water conflicts in the EU in the future. As a resident of one of these countries, we should agree on how water is distributed equally accross the EU to prevent this from happening and to maintain unity of the region.

4. Luckily this is not an issue in Spain right now, as it rained a lot during the months prior to summer starting, but the last few years were awfully dry, with water reservoirs dangerously low. This is an issue the whole EU should tackle together.

5. Changing the village name from Hadzhidimitrovo would likely help. Well diggers cant remember how write it, now how to say it. Hadznothumiditytrovo?

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