Bulgarian Air Pollution

Typography
Chronic pollution makes Bulgaria one of the world’s deadliest places to live because of poor air quality, despite years of efforts to improve monitoring and comply with EU standards. But Bulgaria's problems are not isolated and reflect broader concerns over air quality among EU member states. Bulgaria has made steady progress in improving environmental monitoring and adopting regulations on air, water and environmental quality since joining the EU in 2007. Analysts say such steps have been followed by poor enforcement and neglect by both national and EU authorities.

Chronic pollution makes Bulgaria one of the world’s deadliest places to live because of poor air quality, despite years of efforts to improve monitoring and comply with EU standards. But Bulgaria's problems are not isolated and reflect broader concerns over air quality among EU member states. Bulgaria has made steady progress in improving environmental monitoring and adopting regulations on air, water and environmental quality since joining the EU in 2007. Analysts say such steps have been followed by poor enforcement and neglect by both national and EU authorities.

!ADVERTISEMENT!

Bulgaria has signed and ratified the Kyoto protocol[ and has completed the protocol's objectives by achieving a 30 percent reduction of carbon dioxide emissions from 1990 to 2009. However, pollution from outdated factories and metallurgy works, as well as severe deforestation, continue to be major problems. Urban areas are particularly affected mostly due to energy production from coal-based powerplants and automobile traffic,while pesticide usage in the agriculture and antiquated industrial sewage systems have resulted in extensive soil and water pollution with chemicals and detergents. Bulgaria remains the only EU member which does not recycle municipal waste, although an electronic waste recycling plant was put in operation in June 2010. The situation has improved in recent years, and several government-funded programs have been initiated in order to reduce pollution levels

"We have very good laws and monitoring systems in place, but the biggest problem is we have no state agency that can enforce the laws," said Georgi Stefanov, policy and climate change officer for the environmental group WWF. "We have everything but enforcement."

As the European Commission begins to weigh changes to the EU's 2008 air quality directive, analysts say Bulgaria – like many other EU countries – is failing at enforcement.  The Commission is expected to revamp its air quality standards no later than 2013.

Heavy industrialization left a toxic legacy in Bulgaria at the end of communism in 1989, but today’s problems centers on outmoded energy and industrial infrastructure, and an aging transport fleet.

Poverty also contributes, says Stefanov, with large pockets of itinerant communities dependent on wood and other fuels for heating and cooking – spewing hazards to both indoor and outdoor air quality.

Poor air quality has deadly consequences in Bulgaria as well as Romania, which trail only Armenia in having the world’s second highest mortality rates from urban air pollution, according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

The UNDP’s 2011 Human Development Report, released on 2 November, shows that while the annual death rate from poor air quality is slightly higher in Romania (439 deaths per million people compared to 437 in Bulgaria), Bulgaria leads Europe in the intensity of air pollution, ranking in the top one-quarter of the most polluted of the 187 countries included in the report.

Only Armenia has a higher annual mortality rate than the two EU countries – 882 per million population in a country of 3 million people.

The UNDP’s findings drive home the extreme risks of polluted air beyond Bulgaria, which has an urban pollution level that is double the regional average. EU candidate Turkey also has high levels of urban pollution, 37 micrograms per cubic meter, exceeding the regional average of 25 microgrammes per cubic meter, says the report.

And within the current EU, the Commission has taken action against 20 EU members for air quality violations.

For further information: http://www.euractiv.com/specialreport-air-quality/bulgaria-killer-air-exposes-wider-eu-problems-news-508892

Photo: http://kids.mapzones.com/world/bulgaria/