site.btaNew Pipeline to Pernik Is Completed

Pernik, Western Bulgaria,  March 17 (BTA) -  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