Djevdjet Chakurov, the Environment Minister, turned the first sod on the construction site of the waste water treatment facility in the town of Smolyan, southern Bulgaria, on October 7, the ministry said in a statement.

The new high-tech facility will service the town of the Smolyan and will cost eight million euro to build. The station and auxiliary facilities are being financed under the European Union's pre-accession aid programme Ispa.

The project was signed in March 2007 and has to be completed by April 2009. The new station will feature all the necessary high tech equipment required to deal with refuse and recycling and corresponds with the standards set forth by the European Union.

In September, Chakurov called on all local municipalities with population of more than 10 000 people to submit project proposals for similar wastewater treatment units.

The projects are financed under EU's Environment operational programme: there are 510 million leva waiting to be distributed for that purpose throughout Bulgaria. The Environment Ministry is collecting project proposals until December 15 2008, Chakurov said. He called on municipalities to be more active, as the construction of wastewater treatment stations in regions with more than 10 000 residents until 2010 is one of the commitments Bulgaria made when joining the EU.