The water operator "Yovkovtsi" refuses to build a wastewater treatment plant despite the manganese and chromium pollution in the Svishtov region.

The director of the Water Supply and Sewerage Company "Yovkovtsi" Ilian Iliev regularly receives prescriptions from the Regional Health Inspectorate to provide quality drinking water for various villages in the municipality of Svishtov, where contaminations with manganese and chromium appear. The latest case of pollution is from the beginning of this month and affects the villages of Balgarsko Slivovo, Sovata and Dragomir, with a total population of nearly 1700 people.

Iliev points out that the contamination of drinking water with manganese and chromium appears periodically, but the Water Supply and Sewerage Company "Yovkovtsi" monitors it, immediately warns the residents of the villages and sends water trucks. However, according to him, a permanent solution with a treatment plant is not possible, as "the water consumption itself is not sufficient". The director of the Water Supply and Sewerage Company is adamant that it is more likely that people from the villages in the municipality of Svishtov will be supplied with water from another place, rather than building a treatment plant.

Meanwhile, in the Veliko Tarnovo region, they insist on checking the condition of the "Yovkovtsi" dam, from which eight municipalities are supplied with water. At a joint briefing, the mayor of Veliko Tarnovo, Daniel Panov, and the manager of the Water Supply and Sewerage Company "Yovkovtsi", Ilian Iliev, discussed the problems related to water supply in the region. Panov explained that the volume of the "Yovkovtsi" dam has increased by more than 2 million cubic meters of water after heavy rains, but nevertheless, in the municipality, control will be introduced for leaking taps and other devices related to domestic and hygienic needs.

Iliev, on the other hand, pointed out that the losses of drinking water in the Water Supply and Sewerage network are 56% and the pipes need to be renewed. Another major problem is the theft of water and insufficient afforestation, which hinders the retention of water quantities in the soil. The long-term alternative for the water supply of the population is the restoration of the Emen aqueduct and its connection to the "Alexander Stamboliyski" dam, for which a pre-investment study and a project will be made.