Contents


WFD sets a new direction for
Bulgarian water legislation

 

 

Water management in Bulgaria is regulated by the Law on Waters, adopted in 1999 and enforced in January 2000 - the legal frame for the implementation of the wfd is set

 

 

Credit: S. VON KEITZ

When the Water Framework Directive was adopted by the European Union in 2000, Bulgaria’s Law on Waters proved to be an inadequate tool for the transposition of the Directive into the country’s national legislation. That became possible only later, in 2000 and 2001, when much of the Law was amended and its binding by-laws were elaborated – most importantly, the two regulations that concern integrated river basin management, i.e. those regulating the Basin Directorates and the Basin Councils, which are described below.
The Law on Waters defines four regions for basin water management in Bulgaria – the Danubian, the Black Sea, the East–Aegean and the West–Aegean regions. Despite the fact that the Law entered into force in the beginning of 2000, the first real steps towards introducing basin-level water management were taken in January 2002, when the Regulation for the Activities, Organisation of Work and Structure of the Basin Directorates was officially announced and entered into force. The selection and appointment of the Directors of the four Basin Directorates followed in August 2002. The Regulation foresees the election of the Directorates’ staff to be completed in January 2003. The Basin Directorates are in charge of information collection and creation of databases, water monitoring, management of all water bodies, which are exclusive state property, public relations and distribution of information. The functioning of the Directorates in financed entirely from the state budget. The question about allocating for this purpose sufficient resources in the state budget, and in general about financing the implementation of the water management policy remains to be addressed, but many experts are convinced that the state budget will not be sufficient and that external donors and funds will have to be sought. In order to be able to seek funds and identify donors, the Directorates’ staff yet needs to be adequately trained.
The Law on Waters also provides for a high-level Expert Council on Waters involving representatives of various stakeholders, including scientific institutions, local administration and non-governmental organisations. The Council is a permanent body at the Ministry of the Environment and Water and has consultative functions.
Other very important structures that are to be established soon involve a Basin Councils at each Basin Directorate. The aim of the Councils is to support the functioning of the Basin Directorates and in this way contribute to the unified and balanced water management for the benefit of the population, human health, preservation of the natural water habitats and bodies, and sustainable development of the respective basin region. The Councils are the main bodies to guarantee public information and involvement and the participation of concerned experts in the integrated river basin management procedures. The activities, structure, functioning and composition of the Councils are to be determined by a draft regulation that has yet to be adopted. For now, the Councils are foreseen to have 20% state adminsitartion representatives, 30% local adminsitration representatives, 30% representatives of water consumers and owners of water management facilities, and 20% representitives of NGOs and scientific institutions.
The functioning of the Councils has to be financed by the Directorates’ budget, but there is no limitation on additional funds raised from external sources. The latter will certainly play an essential role since the state budget is not seen as a sufficient funding tool.
These procedures and structures, introduced by the Law and its Regulations are a very positive step forward in the direction of efficient and sustainable water management practices through the involvement of all parties concerned and information of the public at large.
A comparative analysis of the EU WFD (2000/60/EC) and the Bulgarian Law on Waters (1999) and its relevant Regulations from 1 to 12 was carried out under the PHARE Access project Citizens and Community Participation in the Management and River Watersheds Protection: Practices, Access to Decision Making and Legislation Process. The conclusion drawn in the course of the analysis is that there is a general correspondence between the WFD and the Bulgarian legislation on water. The percentage of disparity between the two documents is put at about 19%. The main weakness of the Bulgarian legislation seems to lie in the lack of correspondence between WFD Annexes and the Bulgarian Law on Water – the comparative analysis found the disparity to amount to 45%.
Finally, many experts believe that the Law still suffers from certain imperfections. Its implementation is made even more difficult by the shortage of funds coupled with the inertia of the responsible government bodies. Despite the Law’s current imperfections, most experts agree that it is necessary to promptly embark on its full and effective implementation in order to create the envisaged bodies and procedures and make them fully functional.

 

Vesselina Kavrakova
kavrakova@internet-bg.net