site.btaMore than 16 Million Leva Made Available to Cope with Natural Disasters

Sofia, August 20 (BTA) - The caretaker cabinet Wednesday approved additional expenditure and transfers of 16.204 million leva for activities in the aftermath of the devastating floods in late June and early August, the government's information service said.

The three worst-hit cities: Varna and Dobrich in Northeastern Bulgaria, and Mizia in Northern Bulgaria, will receive 1.8 million leva, 860,000 leva and 1 million leva respectively.

The bulk of the money, 13 million leva, is allocated to local governments for projects and activities for prevention, mitigation and coping with the consequences of natural disasters.

Three million leva are allocated to cover costs for emergency rescue operations and activities, repair works of schools and hospitals, and for programmes for prevention of disasters.

The funding comes from the budget reserves for contingency and emergency expenditure.

The cabinet also made available an additional amount of 800,000 leva for purchase of anti-hail rockets. This is the fourth time a decision to this effect has been made this year. Frequent hailstorms in Bulgaria this year required the use of 13,170 anti-hail rockets so far, against 5,100 fo rteh entire 2013, and 2,800 in 2012.