Bulgaria and Greece signed the Arda Water Resources Agreement
The new deal replaces the 60-year agreement, which expired last July and emphasizes how uncertain the water resources have become in the Mediterranean region due to climate change.
The difficult negotiations between Sofia and Ankara have caused tension among farmers in the northern Greek region of EUROS, where blockades were organized in January and insisted on finding a solution.
In Bulgaria, the question has aroused dissatisfaction with opposition parties who accused the government of giving valuable resources for free.
There will be an agreement with Greece from Arda, the interests of Bulgaria will be protected, Zhelyazkov assured
| A bilateral declaration, signed by the foreign ministers of the countries on May 2, provides for Bulgaria to provide water from the Arda River, which will irrigate 20,000 HKA in the plain of the EUROS in Northern Gunia. |
The volume of water supplied will be resolved on an annual basis after assessing the needs of Bulgaria, according to a foreign ministry.
« The two countries focused on the importance of water resources … as well as the need to preserve them in terms of climate change risks, » the ministry said without giving more details.
Greek farmers hoped for a longer-term agreement, but welcomed the present.
| « There is a solution in the last minute, » said Dimitris Dracudis, head of the local farm association. |
The end of Arda water is of life or death for Greek farmers
« We were worried because the irrigation season began, » Dracudis said, noting that farmers were expecting details of the agreement.
The expired agreement was part of the Reparation Agreement after World War II, signed in 1964, which obliges Bulgaria to allocate 186 million cubic meters of water every year from May to September from its dams to the EU.
Greece has no working dams in this territory, but the new agreement plans to build such facilities, according to the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry.
