Solid Waste Priority Projects For The Sustainable Development Of South-East Bulgaria

Abstract

Endowed with a range of resources, the south-west of Bulgaria is an important region of the country. But there are also serious and growing environmental problems that are thwarting the region’s sustainable development. Given the concentration of industrial concerns in the region and its inadequate municipal infrastructure, it is clear that determined efforts and high capital investment are needed to deal with its serious and growing environmental problems whose origins go back to the neglect in the former Socialist era.

According to prevailing legislation, the State is responsible for past environmental damage and it must pay for necessary remediation. In the process of privatisation, the liabilities of the past and new owners for rectifying environmental damage caused in the past are usually estimated and agreed upon. Even so, the process is proving to be time-consuming and tortuous.

The main thermal power stations of the country are located in the region where there is a concentration of a wide variety of industrial facilities. Owing mainly to the dirty technologies they employ, these facilities generate a variety of pollutants that contaminate soil, air and water. The problem is compounded by, among others, the on-going privatisation process and scarcity of finance needed for remediation or for implementing clean technology.

This paper gives an overview of the environmental problems besetting the region, covering the current problems of managing municipal, industrial and agricultural solid wastes. Notwithstanding the problems of scarcity of finance for investment and know-how and technology transfer, it is argued that effective measures must be taken as a matter of priority if even a modest degree of sustainable solid waste management is to be achieved in the interests of both present and future generations.