Ivan Ivanov, Chairman of the Bulgarian Water Association: In the long term, when losses are reduced, the cost of water will go down

- Mr. Ivanov, according to you and your experts, losses of water during its transportation reach 70% or even 80%. Due to this problem, operators of the Water Supply and Sewerage Company (VIK) need to invest a lot of money in the network modernisation, but they do not use their own profits for this purpose. Why?
- Because the government decided, on the proposal of Deputy PM and Minister of Finance Simeon Djankov, that their entire profits should go to the state budget. That is why, they do not have enough funds for investment, although they could reinvest their profits. Of course, this money would still not be enough.

- What resources can the state provide?
- The state cannot provide such an amount of money on its own, because we speak about €10 bn. Therefore, we rely on EU funding, which is not enough either. Other options are to release the funds of VIK operators, to resort to bank loans, or concessions. Not only pipes and water mains will be replaced, but purifying stations, dams, etc will be modernised. That is necessary in the long term.

- There are rumours about higher amounts of money?
- Yes, of course, just like with cars – if you want the newest and most modern model, you will have to pay more. However, we have seriously lagged behind, so we aim at bringing the water supply and sewerage infrastructure to a normal state, meeting EU standards. In principle, of course, we could upgrade the network for €50 bn.

- Why some people claim that if certain Water Strategy goals are met, there will be no water restrictions, having in mind that the Iskar dam is one of the few multi-year equalizers?
- The Iskar dam is used by Sofia. There are other dams which supply big towns. As you can see, there are no problems with water supply in big towns. At present we are preparing master plans to construct more similar facilities on that territory. These master plans will reflect the need for new dams, which will cost a fortune. As far as this type of construction is concerned, it is probably best to form a public-private partnership.

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