Photos: “For the Truth”
Almost a year after the repair of the water pipeline in the village of Gostilitsa, Dryanovo, pipes from the unfinished work are a common sight, while local residents damage their cars because the upper part of the village resembles an archaeological site.
The picture in Gostilitsa is apocalyptic. You can’t drive or walk there, as Za Istinata found out. On Facebook, a resident of the village shared that she had to pay four figures to repair the chassis of her family’s SUV after months of having to overcome the obstacles caused by the roadworks to get to her house. Another user asked: “Do I need to buy an SUV to get home?”
There is also a video circulating on social media showing an excavation dangerously close to a house and a comment about what would happen if the property collapsed.
In front of every house, there are excavations for water pipe branches.
They have been filled with crushed stone, but this not only fails to solve the problem, it creates one. Every time a car drives over, the stone chips fly out from under the tires. The site is on a hill in the upper part of the village, and the pieces of crushed stone literally scatter under the cars. Thus, the areas above the potholes are slowly becoming bare, and after the recent prolonged rain, it is possible that the crushed stone has slid down towards the village. This creates a new problem for the locals, who instead of walking on stones will now be walking in mud.
The deadline for repairing the asphalt pavement expired at the end of last year, even though according to the linear schedule for repair work, this should have been done just one day after filling the trenches with road aggregate. No one in the village can remember how long the excavated trenches have been filled with rubble.
The situation is complicated by the approaching winter.
Some of the people in the village are elderly. One of them is Stefanka Hadzhova, who, as soon as she realizes that a journalist has come to the village, insists on showing him her house. On the way, the woman almost bursts into tears and keeps asking: “What should I do, who can I talk to, and who can teach me what is right?”
Her concerns are about the water pipe leading to her house. The pipe has been left open, and the builders have left, explains the 80-year-old woman. On her own initiative, she covered the pipe with plastic and weighed it down with stones. She is afraid that winter is coming and no one has seen the builders for a long time. The woman does not know if she is expected to cover the branch with soil herself. She is worried about doing so, but she is even more worried that if the pipe freezes, not only will she be left without water in the cold, but it will also require further repairs. She lives alone, is a widow, and has no one to turn to. She says she asked the mayor how to proceed, but when she told her about her fears, the mayor threw up her hands. “It was as if she was saying, ‘Don’t bother me,'” says Stefanka.
Local residents are preparing both collective and individual complaints against the contractor, according to a Facebook group for the village.
What does the mayor think about the situation in the village?
“Za Istinata” was unable to find out. On October 1, three attempts were made to contact her – at her office, which was locked, by calling the office phone number left at the entrance to the mayor’s office, and then on her personal phone, which was helpfully provided by villagers. She did not answer the calls or return them, and she cannot have failed to hear that there was a journalist in the village.
At the local community center, they said she had been there a little earlier and “might have gone to Dryanovo,” but some women from the village I met by chance were more talkative and explained that she had a hard time staying at the town hall. Whether this is true or not is not so important, because people do not rely on her to solve the problem of repairing the village streets after major repairs to the water supply system.
The repair of the water supply system in the village of Gostilitsa is part of a project worth BGN 2.2 million, including VAT.
It includes the repair of the water supply system in the village of Chukovo, both villages being in the municipality of Dryanovo. The contractor for the work is the Veliko Tarnovo-registered company Building Comfort.
It was the only company to reach the final stage of the tender procedure after the other participant, the joint-stock company Kristalna Voda, failed to provide the key to decrypt its bid on time and was removed from further participation.
Thus, Building Comfort won the contract for the work, which is for a period of 210 calendar days. The contract was signed with the municipality of Dryanovo on August 5, 2022, and according to the information board for the project, the construction site was opened on June 4, 2024. Work began first in the village of Chukovo and continued at the end of August last year in the village of Gostilitsa.
“This renovation will not be completed for at least another five years,” concludes a pessimistic elderly man with whom “Za Istinata” spoke in front of a pensioners’ club in the village of Gostilitsa. He says he is a civil engineer and knows what he is talking about. Let’s hope he is not right; so far, he has only been right about one year. Because at the end of 2024, the mayor of Dryanovo municipality, Trifon Panchev, wrote on Facebook in response to a comment by a resident of the village of Chukovo: “Be patient! Despite your skepticism, there will be water and new asphalt in the village.” But what is the unit of measurement for patience in this case?
And the residents of the village who intend to make claims against the contractor have every reason to do so. The technical specifications for the project state: “Any damage or harm caused by an action, omission, or negligence on the part of the contractor will be repaired in an appropriate and satisfactory manner, by and at the expense of the contractor. In the event of a claim for damage or an allegation of damage to property as a result of the work under this contract, the contractor shall be liable for all costs associated with the settlement or defense of such claims.”
