Podcast in English
Text size
Bulgarian National Radio © 2025 All Rights Reserved

New report of poisoned fish in a Rhodope river

Photo: Radostina Chernokova, BNR, Smolyan

Hundreds of fish have been found dead in Cherna River in Ustovo, a neighbourhood of the town of Smolyan.

The water supply and sanitation company has not ascertained any breach in the collector sewer, and there are no irregular discharges from the collector pipe into the river. There is no reason for this to take place as part of the water cycle, they say.

The dead fish were reported yesterday in a call to emergency number 112. The river section in question is 1.5 kms. long, in the region of Ustovo residential area. A probe for establishing the perpetrator has been launched by the Regional Inspectorate of Environment and Water, the River Basin directorate, the Executive Agency for Fisheries and Aquaculture, the police and Smolyan municipality.

The Executive Agency for Fisheries and Aquaculture says that almost all fish – brown trout and Barbus petenyi – have died, and that a discharge of black water from the pipe of Ustovo hydroelectric power plant has been ascertained. However, for the time being experts from the Smolyan water supply and sewerage company are not confirming this and are inspecting the area.



Последвайте ни и в Google News Showcase, за да научите най-важното от деня!
Listen to the daily news from Bulgaria presented in "Bulgaria Today" podcast, available in Spotify.

More from category

Bulgaria insists on building bridges over the Danube near Silistra and Nikopol

More bridges over the Danube are not just a bilateral issue between Bulgaria and Romania – they are a strategic priority for the prosperity of the entire EU and for our collective security within NATO.  This was emphasized by Deputy Prime Minister..

published on 11/6/25 8:46 AM

Bulgaria and North Macedonia sign an agreement on building a railway tunnel between the two countries

Today, the deputy PMs and ministers of transport of Bulgaria and North Macedonia Grozdan Karadjov and Aleksandar Nikoloski will sign an agreement on the preparation, construction and operation of a cross-border railway tunnel between the two..

published on 11/6/25 7:15 AM

Ex-PM Boyko Borisov: Delyan Peevski is unfairly sanctioned under the Magnitsky Act

GERB leader Boyko Borisov has told the media that he personally participated in talks with American representatives on the lifting of the Magnitsky sanctions against Bulgarian citizens. He said that he also spoke on the subject with David Cameron while..

published on 11/5/25 9:04 PM