site.btaTwo Ministers Are Among Officials Responsible for Water Supply Crisis in Pernik - Prosecutor

ESD 16:21:01 13-12-2019
ZH1618ES.113
113 POLITICS-WATER RATIONING-REMARKS

Ministers of Environment, of Regional Development
Responsible for Water Supply Crisis in Pernik -
Prosecutor


Sofia, December 13 (BTA) - According to the Pernik, Western Bulgaria, District Prosecution Office, the ministers of regional development, and of environment and water are among the officials who are responsible for the water supply crisis in the town, Nova TV said on Friday. It is argued that by their failure to act, the ministers did not take due care for management of the respective property.

Pernik and nearby villages were put on water rationing in mid-November and have drinking water for only six hours between 4 pm and 10 pm.

On December 10 the Pernik District Prosecution Office said that they conducted a check into the causes of the water shortage and who is responsible for it. Without providing details, they said that the findings of the check were sent to the specialized prosecuting magistracy.

The Pernik District Prosecution Office holds that as a result of the inaction of the ministers, human health was harmed, as well as that material damage was inflicted.

Regional Development and Public Works Minister Petya Avramova told reporters on Friday that if there was an error in the management of the process by the Pernik water supply and sewerage utility, whose principal is her Ministry, respectively, the Minister, the error is in delaying the introduction of the water rationing and of stopping the water supply to industrial consumers in a bid to preserve the drinking water reserves over a longer period. Avramova said she had not seen the document with the findings of the check of the Pernik Prosecution Office.

Newly elected Pernik Mayor Stanislav Vladimirov (of the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party) accused the Regional Development Ministry with inaction regarding the water supply crisis in the town. In a TV appearance earlier in the week Vladimiror said that the Ministry neither comes up with ideas to solve the problem, nor it is doing anything. LN/ZH//