CURRENT STATUS OF THE POTABLE WATER SECTOR IN BULGARIA

PROBLEMS AND FUTURE DEVELOPMENT

Prof. Dr. Eng. Petar Kalinkov

Water resources in Bulgaria

Surface water

River basin

1961-1998 (50% probability)

Total flow BG territory neighbouring countries

106 m3 % 106 m3 % 106 m3 %

Danube basin 6017 30,96 5996 31,63 20,6 4,3

Black sea basin 2243 11,55 1976 10,43 267 56

East Belomorski 7184 36,97 7183 37,90 - -

West Belomorski 3988 20,52 3799 20,04 189 39,7

Total: 19433 100 18956 100 476.9 100

82% formed in the mountains 18% formed in the plains

2430 m3 per capita per annum available surface water

Water resources in Bulgaria

Underground water

River Basin

1961-1998

Operational Underground Water Resources

Potential Utilized Non utilized

m3/s 106 m3/a m3/s 106 m3/a m3/a 106 m3/a %

Danube basin 90 2838 13.5 426 76.5 2412 85

Black sea basin 22 662 11.8 372 10.2 322 48

East Belomorski 37 1167 19.7 621 17.5 552 47

West Belomorski 9 284 5 158 4 126 44

Total (1998) 158 4953 50 1577 108 3376 68

Underground water is the only possible solution for potable water supply in many regions of the country.

612 m3 per capita per annum potential underground water

WAI & WSI

WSI = 0,0 - 0,1 no stress; WSI = 0,1 - 0,2 low stress; WSI = 0,2 - 0,4 average stress; WSI = 0,4 - 0,8 high stress; WSI = 0,8 - 1,0 very high

stress;

WSI = consumed wateravailable water

WATER STRESS INDEXWATER AVAILABILITY INDEX

WAI = available fresh waterpopulation

WAI < 1000 m3/cap/a

water deficit

WAI & WSI in Bulgaria

Indices 1991 1995 2001 2004 2005 2010

Population 8 669 269 8 384 715 7 891 095 7 761 049 7 718 750 7 504 868

WAI m3/cap./day

2 238 2314 2 458 2 500 2 513 3250

Abstracted water, 10 6 m3 5199 2464 2 403 2 891 2 657 3 330

WSI m3/cap./day) 0.268 0.127 0.124 0.149 0.137 0.136

Water supply service

At 1998

4510 (75.8%) settlements are served by the National

Water Supply System;

98 % of the population is water supplied;

At 2010

5031 (84.6%) settlements are served by the National

Water Supply System;

98.8 % of the population is water supplied;

the facilities

11+5 reservoirs with 1 505,000,000 m3 storage capacity;

42 WTPs with 480,506,000 m3/a capacity, providing 42% of the

supplied water;

3560 pump stations with 768,378,000 m3/a capacity

6 087 water tanks with total capacity 2615879 m3;

70620 km water distribution network.

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Asbestos cement

Steel

others

PVC+PEHD

Cast iron

Water supplied by WSS Companies

0

200000

400000

600000

800000

1000000

1200000

1400000

1600000

1986 1994 1998 2010

Su

pp

lied

wat

er, x

100

0 m

3

Population (un)growth

0

1986 1994 1998 2010

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

8000

9000

10000

Po

pu

lati

on

x 1

000

…which results in

1986 1994 1998 2010

Lit

ers

per

cap

ita

per

day

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

500

in 2010

929,410,000 m3 - supplied water;

Only 371,400,000 m3(40%) are accounted;

And 558,000,000 m3 (60%) are not accounted;

…however

70% are pure physical

losses

30% are consumed but not accounted

135 l/ca/d

340 l/cap/d

205 l/cap/d

…and the problems

Great water losses in the transport trunks, the

distribution networks and the building connections;

Water shortage during the summer months and

during droughty conditions, due to lack of equalizing

water reservoirs;

Many not completed facilities of the water supply

infrastructure;

Potable water abstraction

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

reservoirs undergroundwater

rivers

The water quality

Water Quality Unit River water Res.water Und. water

pH - 7.0-7.8 7.0-8.0 7.0-7.5

Turbidity NTU0,0÷12,0~330 d

10÷300~40 d0,0÷10,0

12,0÷20,00,0÷0,01

Colour (Pt. Co.) ° 5,0÷30,0 5,0÷45,0 -

Alkalinity mg/l 0,2÷1,0 1,0÷4,0 -

Oxidizability mg.O2 /l 1,0÷6,0 1,0÷12,0 -

Temperature ºC 0,2÷16,0 4,0÷15,0 6,0÷12,0

Fe mg/l 0,0÷1,0 0,0÷0,5 0,0÷0,12

Mn mg/l 0,0 0,0÷2,5 0,0÷0,5

NH3 mg/l 0,0÷1,2 0,0÷0,5 -

NO3 mg/l 0,0÷10,0 0,0÷5,0 0,0÷12,0

NO2 mg/l 0,0÷0,1 0,0÷0,35 -

Microb. Indices above the norm above the norm above the norm

2-stage water treatment scheme

1-stage water treatment scheme

Removal of Manganese

What are the main WTPs’ problems?

The equipment is physically and technically out dated; Necessity of re-evaluation of the treatment technologies due to

deterioration of the raw water quality; The preparation of projects for many WTPs is preceding the

construction and filling in of the reservoirs, which results in utilization of prognostic, not real water quality data;

The treatment of technical waters is either not developed at all or has not been solved good in many WTPs;

Some water abstraction by reservoirs are not secured by sanitary protection zones, which creates problems to the raw water quality;

Lack of research institute that should develop technologies based on real, not prognostic water quality.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION