Close to a month following devastating floods in neighboring Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, torrential rains this spring have claimed their first victims in Bulgaria. The Asparuhovo Neighborhood in Varna was flooded by a one-meter wave of water and mud. The government has declared 23^rd June a Day of National Mourning to commemorate the 11 victims so far of the floods. Varna has introduced mourning as of today.

„The water swept away the people as they waited for the bus stop in Asparuhovo”, a witness of the disaster said. The flood wave swept away dozens of cars and flooded many houses and basements of housing blocks in the neighborhood. Starting from this morning, a state of emergency has been declared in the municipalities of Dobrich, Dryanovo and Veliko Tarnovo where flooding is common.

In data from the National Institute of Hydrology and Meteorology, the heaviest rains fell on Bulgaria’s Northern Black Sea coast. The biggest quantity of the rainfall was seen in Shabla, more than 120 l per sq. m that is double the monthly rainfall norm for that region. Dobrich and Kaliakra saw rainfall quantities at 107 l per sq. m, and in Varna, at 74 l per sq. m.

It appears that humans are helpless in the face of such natural disasters. However there is no doubt that more precautions can be taken. It is worth noting that the rainfall in the Asparuhovo Neighborhood, wasn’t that heavy, 35 l per sq. m that still accounts for the monthly volume of rainfall. The catchment area of the so-called western drainage canal called by the locals dereto (the ravine) and passing through the worst affected road Gorna Studena is about 4.5 square kilometers

For one hour with an intensity of rainfall at 35 l per sq. m, some 140 million liters of water flow through the said territory that the canal cannot absorb, explains Oleg Kolev, Chief Expert at the Landslides and Strengthening of Territories Department of the Municipality of Varna. This implies that the drainage canal in question has not been designed with the adequate capacity in the context of climate change.

Things become even more clogged given that illegal logging has left pretty bare the hillside above that ravine which has not been cleaned up for years. Clogged drainage canals have become chronic for many Bulgarian towns and villages and among the leading causes of flooding. Excessive urbanization that “replaces” green plots supporting drainage, with asphalt streets, where flood waters race like mad until they reach the first wide area to produce a flood, is another negative factor.

For this reason the general impression is more often that high flood waters emerge as if from nowhere. With a view to climate change when abrupt changes in weather conditions are common, Bulgaria must develop an advanced early warning system for floods.  

English Daniela Konstantinova