When at the end of 2019 the Studena dam near Pernik dried up and a water crisis befell the region, the country seemed to suddenly realize that it was vulnerable to drought. And the extreme heat and droughts of recent years have confirmed this. Climate change models show that many regions of the country - especially the south and the Black Sea - are at high risk. That is why dams are so important.
After 1989, however, Bulgaria abandoned the construction of such projects. It was only in 2019 that the first new dam for drinking and domestic water supply in the past three decades - Plovdivtsi - was completed and put into operation. There are plans for other reservoirs, but most of them are only on paper so far. The good news, however, is that after a serious delay, another new dam is on the home straight and, it seems, will be ready within this year - Luda Yana, 2 km from the town of Panagyurishte.
The facility has been under construction for eight years and has already experienced many ups and downs in the process. It will be particularly important for about 50,000 people in the municipality of Panagyurishte and some neighboring municipalities, which will be supplied with drinking water by the reservoir. The region has faced serious hurdles with such resources. A state of emergency has been declared in Panagyurishte due to a lack of water and in 2008, 2012 and 2017, for example, there was a summer water regime.
At the moment, the project is 80% ready, the regional Ministry announced. The contractors are Strabag and GP Group, with the latter confirming that the plan is to be ready by the end of the year. If this prediction proves true, the construction of the dam will be five years behind schedule. The questions remain as to why this major delay occurred and who will foot the bill.
Loud and proud start
The Luda Yana project was started in the 1980s, but was stopped in 2000, when, according to a report by the Audit Chamber, it was 70% ready. This means that all that was left was to finish. However, a whole decade passed before the announcement of a public procurement, during which 12 governments would change.
The regional ministry started a preliminary selection of candidates in the tender during the Oresharski cabinet in 2014. In 2016, when Liliana Pavlova (GERB) was already heading the ministry, the department concluded a contract for over 56 million levs with a merger between the construction companies Strabag and Stanilov.
The project actually consists of several sub-sites: a dam wall and its adjacent facilities, a spillway, a diversion tunnel, a water tower, an injection gallery, a drinking water treatment plant, two water supply pipelines and two pumping stations. The total volume of the new dam will be 20 million cubic meters, the GP Group told Kapital, while the height of the dam wall is 43 m.
The manager of the Panagyurishte Municipal Waterworks, Marin Vulev, told Kapital that the municipality is located on the southern part of Sredna Gora, where there is less afforestation, hence moisture and water decrease during the summer months. "This is a very valuable and important facility for the municipality and the region. In the future, this drought may also affect neighboring municipalities and they may ask to be supplied - such as Strelcha or another part of the Pazardzhik region," says Engineer Vulev. "When there are shock volleys of rain like now (at the end of June 2024 - ed.), the dam will capture the water as a buffer, storing it for a stage where it is needed," he explained.
You're terribly late
The dam was originally scheduled to be completed by 2019. In a written response to a parliamentary question five years ago, then-GERB regional minister Petya Avramova attributed the delay to bad weather conditions in the summer of 2018, as well as a lack of manpower.
Due to problems with one of the previous contracts Stanilov in 2019 the project was temporarily frozen. After the collapse of the former, the company was replaced by GP Group and the consortium was renamed Strabag - GP. In accordance with the contract, prior consent was requested from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications for a change in composition, and it was granted.
Towards the end of 2020, the Ministry of Regional Development claimed that Luda Yana would be ready by the end of 2022. This did not happen. The new date is now the end of 2024, with GP Group telling Kapital that the fresh delay is attributed to "unfavorable weather factors, restrictions during the Covid crisis and subsequent difficulties with the supply of materials and equipment due to the war in Ukraine".
How much was paid, how much was built
The contract for construction is for 56.3 million levs, for design and author supervision - almost 4.2 million levs, and that for construction supervision - just over 7 million levs. Thus, the total price for Luda Yana exceeds 67 million levs. So far, more than 32 million levs have been paid to the builder, 5 million levs to the supervisor, and 2.4 million levs to the designers.
The project is fully financed from the state budget, the regional ministry said. In addition, the ministry has claimed penalties from the contractor in the wake of delays.
According to the ministry, the site is 80% ready, and the dam itself is 95% complete. Other items are also advanced and some are complete. However, there are also some administrative issues - for example, it has not yet been decided who will manage the dam - from the Panagyurishte Water and Sewer Association or from the Panagyurishte Municipality, explained Marin Vulev from Panagyurishte Water and Sewerage.
Nevertheless, the end is in sight and only the second new dam in Bulgaria in the last 35 years will soon be a fact. If there are heavy rains in the fall and next spring, as well as snow in the winter, next year Luda Yana can supply Panagyurishte with water. "It will undoubtedly be a valuable acquisition," says Vulev.
When at the end of 2019 the Studena dam near Pernik dried up and a water crisis befell the region, the country seemed to suddenly realize that it was vulnerable to drought. And the extreme heat and droughts of recent years have confirmed this. Climate change models show that many regions of the country - especially the south and the Black Sea - are at high risk. That is why dams are so important.
After 1989, however, Bulgaria abandoned the construction of such projects. It was only in 2019 that the first new dam for drinking and domestic water supply in the past three decades - Plovdivtsi - was completed and put into operation. There are plans for other reservoirs, but most of them are only on paper so far. The good news, however, is that after a serious delay, another new dam is on the home straight and, it seems, will be ready within this year - Luda Yana, 2 km from the town of Panagyurishte.
