Photo: Ekaterina Kyuchukova
The retaining wall on the Chaya River in the Plovdiv municipality of Sadovo is impassable. The protective structure is overgrown with vegetation and, due to its poor condition, once again poses a flood threat to the population in the area and agricultural land.
“The entire dam is compromised. It was built back in 1943-1944, but it has never been so neglected. The state has not allocated a single penny to Irrigation Systems to clear the vegetation, and the roots of trees and bushes are already eating away at the embankment.”
said Sadovo Mayor Dimitar Zdravkov.
He recalled that four years ago, heavy rains damaged agricultural land in the area, but there was a real danger that the dike would break and the river would reach populated areas. Zdravkov added that seven years ago, a retaining wall on the border of the village of Katunitsa collapsed, which had never happened before.
“We also have a problem with the Maritsa River, where the berm (protective strip – ed.) ends and the dike begins to erode before the village of Popovitsa. If the structure breaks there, it will go to the village of Milevo,” said the mayor of Sadovo, making no secret of the fact that he and his colleagues are extremely concerned about the state’s negligence.
According to Zdravkov, the companies cleaning the riverbeds only remove inert materials and do nothing else. “They do not reinforce the dikes. This is the responsibility of the state, so let Napoitelni Sistemi do it—even if they sell sand and make a living from it, it will be a controlled process. In Bulgaria, companies sign contracts with the state, remove inert materials, then the groundwater drops and all farmers suffer. We have had problems with groundwater for years, and it is important for farmers, especially during the dry summer months. Agriculture is still the main livelihood of the population here, even though state policy is killing small farmers,” says Zdravkov.
He joins the demands of the mayors of the Plovdiv region, especially those from the most affected settlements in the last 3-4 years, including the villages of Kaloyanovo, Kalekovets, and Trilistnik. “My colleagues who have suffered from the flooding of the Vacha, Stryama, and Maritsa rivers are also against cleaning the riverbeds by removing inert materials because this causes the groundwater to drop. I fully agree with the mayors of other municipalities that cleaning is urgent and must be carried out by the state in a short period of time. Otherwise, the hard work of the people who suffered from the floods – farmers and residents who received almost no compensation for the disasters, only BGN 375 per household – will be easily destroyed,” added Zdravkov.
According to him, insurers in Bulgaria are not partners of citizens, but consumers. “Let’s lie to you,” as people say. In the end, the insurer blames you for not putting sandbags on your windows to prevent flooding. So why do you want us to insure ourselves? If we are going to put up sandbags, why should we insure ourselves? Instead of being a partner, the insurer treats you like a consumer. There is no trust between insurers and small farmers, for whom every lev is important,” said Zdravkov.
The experience of farmers from the 12 settlements in the municipality of Sadovo shows that small farmers do not have access to the funds that the state allocates for insurance. Only large landlords can access them. “This is why people do not insure their property. There are agribusinessmen in the country who only seek to get money from the state, and our people are disgusted. Almost every year, the ministry allocates funds that do not reach small farmers and have no effect on Bulgarian fruit and vegetable producers. Our people view these insurance measures with distrust,” said the mayor of Sadovo. He recalled that the farmers who suffered from the broken dyke on the Chaya River four years ago did not receive any aid from the state for their destroyed crops.
After heavy rains in the Rhodopes in 2021, the Chaya River overflowed its banks and flooded hundreds of acres of farmland in the villages of Katunitsa, Cheshnegirovo, and Sadovo. Before that, in 2018, over 400 acres of farmland in the region were flooded. At that time, farmers warned that if the state did not take measures to build retaining walls, they would abandon the agricultural sector and vegetable growing. One of the problematic sections of the dyke is from the railway bridge near the village of Katunitsa to the confluence of the Chaya River with the Maritsa River. There is a real danger of the protective structure breaking in the lower part and flooding hundreds of hectares of agricultural land, with the water then entering the area of the village of Cheshnegirovo. The crisis with the uncleaned riverbeds and dikes near the village of Katunitsa, the compromised berm of the Maritsa River near the village of Milevo, and the overgrown sections between the villages of Bogdanitsa and Popovitsa threaten the lives and livelihoods of about 15,000 people living in the area.
