The Bulgarian Socialist Party expresses its sympathy for the people who suffered serious material damage in connection with the floods in Veliko Tarnovo and the municipalities neighboring the old Bulgarian capital. Fortunately, the water element caused only property damage and no people were seriously injured after the peculiar flood.
RAPID DAMAGE ASSESSMENT
Today, however, people are asking logical questions that should be heard by both local and national authorities. After the water recedes, catastrophic damage remains to real estate, primary residences, cars and crops.
Local residents are categorical and within their right to insist on the timely formation of assessment committees to determine the extent of the damage in each household. We recall that in 2024. villages close to Veliko Tarnovo suffered seriously from hail, and some of the families waited more than a year to receive their compensation.
LEGAL CHANGES
A serious problem with such disasters and the formation of an assessment committee is the fact that funds for damage compensation are paid based on the tax assessments of the property, which are often underestimated. In many cases, the money is not enough to carry out real repairs. Therefore, the BSP calls for urgent legislative changes, through which the affected families will receive real assessments of their damages.
THE LOGICAL QUESTIONS
Unfortunately, Veliko Tarnovo and the region have a sad experience with disasters of a similar nature. 12 years ago, the water element flooded the towns of Kilifarevo and Debelets, close to the old capital. And then, fortunately, there were no victims. At that time, serious questions were raised by the local population about the mass deforestation of forests in the Balkans, about the unscrupulous dumping of branches into rivers and ravines, and the lack of an adequate policy for cleaning the riverbeds.
Today, the people of Veliko Tarnovo are asking serious questions that the BSP cannot ignore or ignore. Who and why allowed the overbuilding of the Veliko Tarnovo neighborhoods, especially the "Kartala" and "Akatsiya" neighborhoods? Is the "Kronoshpan" factory responsible for the felling and deforestation of hundreds of acres of forests? How long will the residents of the "Assenov" and "Sveta Gora" neighborhoods pray that their homes will not be periodically flooded by the incoming waters of the Yantra? Why, even with much less significant rainfall, the main intersections in Veliko Tarnovo such as the Southern Intersection and "Kachitsa" always sink in water?
TIME FOR REAL ACTION
The water disaster in Veliko Tarnovo proved that nothing old is forgotten, but nothing new has been done either! The old capital has been experiencing floods since the distant 1897, when on June 2 and 3 the water managed to tear off even the Feruz Bey Bridge, built 4 centuries earlier. And so on until today, every few years. Isn't it time for real action, for more serious protective walls, for cleaning the riverbeds, for stopping indiscriminate logging? The answer is one: it is time!
Last but not least, the Bulgarian Socialist Party thanks all the institutions that fought the water disaster around the clock and did not allow the tidal waves to take human lives. The local headquarters of the Bulgarian Socialist Party in Veliko Tarnovo is open for assistance to citizens affected by the flood.