site.btaUPDATED Environment Minister Says He Has All Confidence in Local Environmental Authorities

Environment and Water Minister Julian Popov said here Tuesday that he had all confidence in the environmental monitoring authorities and that it is not the practice of his Ministry to conceal incidents of pollution so as to cater to the interests of the tourist business. The Minister's comment was prompted by a consumer-rights watchdog's report about coastal pollution in Bulgaria earlier in August.

The Health Ministry rejected the report's conclusions and accused the authors of manipulation.

Popov mentioned an alert about heavy pollution on the beaches near Pomorie, which mobilized all the resources of various state institutions in Burgas. "In the end, it turned out that there was  small-scale pollution at one part of the beach, someone had taken a photo of it, and social media spun the information and made it viral", Popov said adding that it was an example of how a minor incident can lead to a wave of criticism and panic.

"Any research by civil society organizations should be taken into account", the Minister said, adding that the objectivity of the results should be discussed with the relevant institutions, which do research according to a known and established methodology.

"Individual cases should not lead to general conclusions," the Environment Minister said in Varna where he visited for the presentation of a report by the Institute of Oceanology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences "Current state of the environment in the Black Sea off the Bulgarian coast".

In Popov's words, the problem of political development in Bulgaria is very often "precisely the lack of in-depth research". According to him, very often people react to the behaviour of the social media, to the moods of the moment, "but we should base long-term policy development on scientific research".

Asked about any pollution of the sea after the Kakhovska dam blast in Ukraine, Popov said there is none.

Yavor Dimitrov, head of the Black Sea Basin Directorate, added that to date there have been no exceedances in any of the indicators examined by the experts, including heavy metals, pesticides and petroleum products. He clarified that an expedition was made along the entire Bulgarian coast and the data from all sampling points are fully within the norm.

The meeting is held in partnership with BTA.