site.btaSix Regional Centres for Crises, Disaster Management to Be Created with Funding under OP Environment

Six Regional Centres for Crises, Disaster  Management to Be Created with Funding under OP Environment

Sofia, June 17 (BTA) - Regional centres for managing crises and
disasters will be established in six regions of Bulgaria with 39
million leva under the new priority axis of Operational
Programme (OP) Environment for handling floodings and
landslides, Environment and Water Minister Ivelina Vassileva
told a news conference Wednesday.

The centres will provide training for municipal and volunteer
formations. The funding will go to the Interior Ministry's Fire
Safety and Civil Protection Chief Directorate, whose Director
Nikolay Nikolov said they are ready to quickly start
implementing the project, Vassileva explained.

The resources will be used for the reconstruction and
rehabilitation of buildings for the centres, and the
establishment of ranges with the corresponding equipment for the
training of the municipal personnel and volunteer formations.

The total resource under the priority axis for preventing the
risk of floodings and landslides is 160 million leva, of which
nearly 120 million leva are for flood prevention.
These 120 million leva will also be used to create a national
system for water management and monitoring in real time. The
first stage of the system's establishment is the monitoring of
water levels along the Iskur River and its tributaries, where
the expert opinion of the National Institute of Meteorology and
Hydrology with the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences will be used.
Models of the affected areas at high water levels will also be
elaborated, Vassileva said.

The Road Infrastructure Agency and municipalities will be the
beneficiaries of the resources for landslides. The money will
help implement projects related to the fortification of
landslides damaging municipal or road infrastructure, the
Environment Minister noted.