Employees of Irrigation Systems are once again on strike due to wages not paid for months. The situation, provoked by perhaps a not very well considered change in the Law on Waters introduced in 2010 has been constantly reoccurring ever since. One can sum up the situation like that: the providing of water to farmers for irrigation should form the profit of the company. At the same time actions on “prevention of any harmful impact of waters”, i.e. the maintenance of facilities and the drainage in cases of exceeding quantities of rain water that we have a lot now, are paid by the state. However, due to a series of reasons the latter wouldn’t pay its debt towards the company. Interim Deputy Minister of Agriculture Engineer Georgi Kostov found it real hard to say for mass media that the state could not help with the salaries in this case.

“This is a state-owned, but also a commercial company and the state cannot simply give money for salaries, without being sanctioned by the EC for non-regulated state aid,” he explained. “The issue remains open, on whether the state fulfills its own decisions for payment of the firm’s activities on “prevention of the harmful impact of waters”. Some EUR 6 million have been paid for this year, but the state has failed to fulfill its obligation to pay its debts for the period 2011 – 2013 until 31 March.”

This money should come from another article, which on the other hand hasn’t been fulfilled… and so on. A classical Catch 22, to sum up. However, another, much more significant problem stands behind this one – the irrigation system of the country is in fact almost completely crumbled down. The falling apart of the agricultural cooperative farms and the return of farmland to its previous owners was accompanied in this country by this damaging process. The deputy minister admits that the Irrigation Systems Company posits the situation for the time being even in such an extremely rainy year as the one we are currently having.

However, CEO of the company Dimitar Metodiev warns:

“This doesn’t mean that we won’t have a disastrous situation in the future. Most facilities, especially the drainage pumping stations are 70 years old. The dams are built up mainly in the 1950s and 60s and their technological exploitation term has expired.”

We also expect the solution of the World Bank, as far as this huge for the Bulgarian agriculture problem is concerned. It has to prepare a strategy for the structure and management of the system for irrigation in this country. Usually the World Bank grants money for such activities, but our story here is now so urgent and critical that the state pays to the bank to create this strategy, Eng. Kostov comments. The negotiations kicked off as early as 2012, but were too slow and the contract was finalized barely in July 2014. The terms provided are really short, said for RB the interim deputy minister. What exactly do we expect from the bank experts?

“The project should first analyze all actions for irrigation and protection from the harmful impact of waters,” the deputy minister says. “However, the following solutions should be proposed: first, a suitable structure, based on the best practice globally. Second: most likely legislative changes and third: a transition period for their implementation. Also - what it all will cost and ideas for foreign support.”

Foreign support means EU funds, most likely the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and, if possible, within the frameworks of the current budget period for the EC – 2014 – 2020. Let’s hope it will all become reality…

English version: Zhivko Stanchev