News

5 December 2024

The Ombudsman Institution sent an opinion to the Ministry of Regional Development on the new Water Supply and Sewerage Bill for public discussion as announced.

The Ombudsman’s experts emphasize that for years the Ombudsman has repeatedly made recommendations for the passage of a new Water Supply and Sewerage Act, which would really guarantee the rights of consumers to access a quality service at an economically reasonable price, including its linkage to the costs of its delivery. The Ombudsman’s position, expressed also in the Institution’s Annual Reports, has always been in favor of a fast and clear procedure for charging a lower price of water when it does not meet the regulatory quality requirements. One of the proposals is to implement measures to support the vulnerable groups of citizens, to ensure effective control on the performance of the Water Supply and Sewerage operators and to determine the social tolerability of the price of the Water Supply and Sewerage services on the basis of reliable data and in line with household income.

“These recommendations are based on a systematic analysis of the problems that citizens bring to the Ombudsman Institution in their complaints. In the period 2020-2023 alone, the total number of complaints increased 48%, the top being the reports about the poor quality of Water Supply and Sewerage (42.23%), followed by high prices (22.68%), the right to be connected to the service (12.26%), charging for water consumption termed “shared consumption” (6.74%)”.

In this opinion the Ombudsman’s experts are firm that it is necessary to provide explicit rules of the annual linkage of the Water Supply and Sewerage service prices to the meeting of the quality and efficiency standards and to the imposition of sanctions on Water Supply and Sewerage operators for failure to adhere to these standards.

They give special attention to the fact that in 2023, the Ombudsman Institution received complaints about interrupted water supply and schedules of water supply in 19 regions, 78 populated areas – the data quoted are from the Annual Report. Also, they say that information was uploaded on the Regional Ministry’s website on 25 November 2024 which clearly shows that 255,430 consumers from 75 municipalities have disrupted water supply, that is, as per the texts proposed for the Bill, these people have to pay fees for access to Water Supply and Sewerage services without actual water consumption and that is extremely unfair.

In addition, according to data from the population census taken in 2021 by the National Statistical Institute (NSI), about 38.9% or 1,657,741 homes are not lived in. These property owners, despite the fact that will not use Water Supply and Sewerage services daily, will also have to pay a price for interconnection.”

The Ombudsman’s team believes that the proposed interconnection price is again not tied up with the social tolerability of the price of Water Supply and Sewerage services. This means the prices for interconnection can be increased without a ceiling set on them. Moreover, the Bill does not provide for the provision of “water subsidies” to support “vulnerable consumers” – a task that the National Assembly assigned to the Minister of Regional Development and Public Works with a Decision approved on 13 December 2019 by the 44^th National Assembly and promulgated in Darzhaven Vestnik (The State Gazette), No. 100 of the same year.

“The Bill is based on the Strategy for Development and Management of Water Supply and Sewerage in the Republic of Bulgaria in the period 2014-2023, but it is not clear whether an analysis of the results of the implementation of the Strategy was made, given the current critical state of the Water Supply and Sewerage sector. The Bill does not include a legal, economic, social and technical analysis of the water reform carried out in the country to date,” the opinion reads. Therefore, the Ombudsman’s experts insist on working out a new Strategy for the Development and Management of the Water Supply and Sewerage Sector in Bulgaria, which would offer effective solutions to pull out of the water crisis and efficient protection of the interests of end users.

The Ombudsman Institution strongly objects to the change of the price structure in connection with the imposition of separate prices for interconnection and quantity consumed per cubic meter for each of the three types of services: drinking water supply, wastewater disposal and wastewater treatment.

The opinion states that the requirement to have one Water Supply and Sewerage operator within a standalone territory is in conflict with Art. 21, para 1, subpara 8 of the Local Self-Government and Local Administration Act where the Municipal Council makes decisions on the acquisition, management and disposal of municipal property. Experts draw attention to the fact that after the forced connection of municipalities to the Water Supply and Sewerage associations, their population will pay a higher price for the water supply and sewerage service, i.e. at a single price, but without change of the quality of the service.

“The principle of a single price for Water Supply and Sewerage service of the administrative district disagrees with the principle of reimbursement of economically justified costs, according to Art. 85, para 1, subpara 4 of the Bill. We believe that it is necessary to take into account the modus of water supply, for which different costs are incurred by the Water Supply and Sewerage operators. It is fairer to impose a single price according to the modus of the delivery of the water supply service on the territory of the water supply operator – a single price for gravity, pumping and mixed modus of delivery.”

The Ombudsman Institution disagrees with the proposal to take legal action against citizens for unpaid small amount under Art. 410, para 1 of the Code of Civil Procedure and insists on providing for options for voluntary compliance as the conclusion of an agreement on deferred payment of what is owed, including before proceeding with legal action, providing for voluntary settlement through a call for voluntary compliance.

Also, the opinion points to the lack of justification for what requires that all new individual water meters should allow distant reading, as well as the lack of an assessment of the amount of the additional financial burden that people will have to bear.

Last but not least, the Ombudsman’s team emphasizes that the reading of the common and individual water meters must be done on the same day in keeping with a pre-agreed schedule, of which consumers should be informed by posting a notice on the building at least three working days in advance.