Bulgarians' Patience Runs Dry Over Water Crisis

Forced to "live without water, in the 21st century, in a European Union country": Bulgarian Yana Stoyanova is not bemoaning climate change, but the incompetence of the authorities which has left some 100,000 people with an acute water shortage

Pernik, Bulgaria, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 29th Jan, 2020 ) :Forced to "live without water, in the 21st century, in a European Union country": Bulgarian Yana Stoyanova is not bemoaning climate change, but the incompetence of the authorities which has left some 100,000 people with an acute water shortage.

Accountant Stoyanova does not live in an isolated backwater, but around 30 kilometres (19 miles) from the capital Sofia.

She is at the sharp end of a crisis which has led to the environment minister being charged with mismanagement and forced to resign.

It also prompted a parliamentary vote of no confidence on Wednesday in the government -- which it survived.

But the scandal has fed public anger at the failures of those running the EU's poorest country.

The western Bulgarian city of Pernik should have a plentiful supply of water from the nearby Studena dam.

However, the reservoir there is practically empty, with most of the bed now lying exposed.

Pernik residents meanwhile are receiving murky, undrinkable water -- and even that only between 4pm and 10pm (1400-2000 GMT).

For three months now, the daily routine for 36-year-old Stoyanova and her electrical engineer husband has revolved around the shortage.

"When we get back from work at 7pm, we run to take a shower and try to wash everything before 10pm," she explains, with buckets and containers being filled before the taps run dry.

"I try to cook with mineral water, I wash dishes with it and of course I only drink mineral water," says 56-year-old Adelina Ivanova, who has to haul the bottles up seven flights of stairs.