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Bulgaria is in the top places for the cleanest beaches in Europe, and the trend is upward

The central beach in Sozopol
Photo: BTA

A record number of beaches on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast have been awarded the prestigious international "Blue Flag" award, certifying clean sea waters and coastal strips. It is given after an assessment by the European Environment Agency, which is done every year. Bulgaria is performing excellently - already 90% of Bulgarian beaches have received the aforementioned "blue flag".


In recent years, Bulgaria has increased the quality of its sea water many times, and Bulgarian beaches are becoming cleaner, Deputy Minister of Environment and Water Atanas Kostadinov commented to Radio Bulgaria.

Deputy Environment Minister Atanas Kostadinov
"Bulgaria will report at the UN meeting in New York regarding the Sustainable Development Goals. And this is related to one of the UN goals regarding the quality of sea water, sea beaches and the so-called "bathing areas". 107-108 large, smaller and medium-sized Bulgarian beaches have been identified, through which millions of visitors pass. 15 years ago, 45% of them were in "very good" ecological and natural condition. And currently 90% of them are," said Deputy PM Atanas Kostadinov.


The assessment from the tourism industry is also positive:

"This is a very important recognition by the European Environment Agency, which assessed that Bulgaria ranks second in Europe after Cyprus in terms of the purity of its sea waters. This is mainly due to the high percentage of clean water around Primorsko, where they reported nearly 100% purity - 99.7%. Overall, the Black Sea in its Bulgarian part is extremely clean, because there are no large industrial enterprises, no chemical plants, metallurgical enterprises, etc. that cause pollution," commented to Radio Bulgaria Prof. Rumen Draganov, director of the Institute for Analysis and Evaluation in Tourism.

Rumen Draganov
And whether the number of beaches awarded the prestigious award will increase further - that depends on the concessionaires of the beaches in question. But the trend is upward:

"I think that the "Blue Flag" is a very good initiative. In Bulgaria, 90% of the beaches have already received the Blue Flag. And overall, it is extremely well received," stated Prof. Draganov.

In turn, the competent authorities – the regional environmental and water inspectorates (RIEW) – are also actively working to control and assess water quality.

"One of the most important elements for the quality of beaches, in addition to water quality, are the natural habitats on land. Water is important from the point of view of preserving its composition as close to natural as possible," explains Pavel Marinov, director of the Regional Inspectorate for Environment and Water in Burgas. 

Pavel Marinov
"Regarding the control of the Regional Inspectorate for Environment and Water to protect against unregulated discharge of polluted water into coastal beach waters, it can be said that in most of the settlement system of the Burgas region this issue has been worked out, there are treatment plants that stop this flow. There are also several places where these issues are still expected to be resolved. But at the same time, the measures that have been taken for several years to stop this flow, which until a few years ago was not regulated and flowed into the sea, are already yielding results. And the effect is that the water is much cleaner compared to 5-6 years ago. In several cities, treatment plants are to be built, but control is carried out by building local ones in the sites that are still being put into operation. And this is not new, the issue was raised 7-8 years ago and since then there has been no leakage of such waters into the sea", reported the director of the Regional Inspectorate for Environment and Water in Burgas.

Arkutino beach at Primorsko
In summary - both the state and the tourism industry are united - Bulgaria's seaside is becoming cleaner. The trend for clearing is also reflected in the forecasts for the current summer season on the Black Sea coast. Rumen Draganov expects the season to be extremely successful, and is about to surpass the levels of the pre-COVID 2019 year. 

About 8 million foreigners are expected to come to Bulgaria this year, with over half of them - 5.5 million, visiting the sea coast. And in total, tourism visits by both foreigners and Bulgarians are expected to be 13 million and 700 thousand.



English publication: R. Petkova
Photos: БТА, Facebook /Atanas Kostadinov, Ivan Gergov, BGNES, BNR Burgas




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