Bulgaria: Environment Row Erupts over Sozopol Beach

 

After the Smokinya North Beach in Sozopol Municipality (southeastern Bulgaria) has been ploughed up for a second year in a row, outraged local residents have alerted the competent institutions. Photos and videos showing a tractor levelling the beach were circulated on social media at the end of last week.

Environmental activist Atanas Roussev told National Radio that the beach concessionaire is breaking the law while the Environment Inspectorate is looking the other way.

On Monday, Deputy Prime Minister and Tourism Minister Mariyana Nikolova ordered a check into the case. A Tourism Ministry team will survey the coastline for any violations and will determine whether there are any grounds to penalize the concessionaire, the Ministry said in a press release.

For its part, the Bourgas Regional Environment and Water Inspectorate has banned the use of heavy earthmoving equipment on the beach.

Beach concessionaire Ivan Alexiev has denied any wrongdoing. He explained to the media that his workers were merely cleaning the beach of garbage and the debris of disused beach establishments, that the work was duly authorized, and that the sand dunes, which cannot be tampered with by law, had been staked off at 2.5 m by a cadastre firm and were being carefully
preserved.

On Tuesday, Sozopol Mayor Tihomir Yanakiev said that Town Hall had been notified by the concessionaires of eight beaches in the municipality about their plans to clean and prepare the beaches for the summer season, as required by their concession contracts. Yanakiev explained that town hall is not empowered to control the concession relations and said that aggressive beach cleaning is at variance with the  Black Sea Coast Development Act, under...

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