“First, I want to thank all the MPs who supported the Government and have given us the confidence and the ambition to finish what we started when we were elected.
I want to emphasise the fact that we are always ready to listen to the voice of the opposition, its criticism and suggestions. Every strong democracy needs a strong opposition to show the mistakes of the Government. This is something good both for the Government and the opposition. The debate held yesterday in Parliament was useful to Bulgarian society because the floods directly affect hundreds of thousands of Bulgarians. However I wonder if this debate was timeous? I think not. It is not that we do not want to listen to criticism. It is simply because the debate inspired by the opposition did not offer anything new and constructive, with few exceptions. It did not help the Bulgarian citizens who today need better organisation to cope with the ever-rising level of the Danube River. Nothing was done through this debate so that the people threatened with evacuation may be helped, and their property and houses protected. This is the duty of the Bulgarian Government. I am not going to comment on the political motives for this no confidence vote, which are actually the real reasons for it, not the floods. I would only say that the conclusion that the 250 million leva allocated by the previous and present governments to deal with flood damage was wasted is completely wrong. The subject of natural disasters involves a complex of problems - problems of organisation, infrastructure and social and financial problems. I will just list some of the steps that we have taken in coping with the floods:
My first step after I was elected was to start helping people to cope with the flood damage of last year. I will always carry in my heart the tragic memories of people who had lost their homes and property. It is inappropriate for the motion of no confidence to have as its motivation the “failure” to cope with flood damage, when the subject of helping people continues to be among the priorities of the Government. This is the first Government that, with the help of Parliament, set up a special ministry to co-ordinate the work of the state in coping with natural disasters, prevention of such disasters, and covering of damage. Have we done everything possible? Of course not, and I bear part of this responsibility, because the new ministry headed by Mrs Etem does not have its own building, and how can a ministry work properly when it does not have a home? But is this Government to blame for the fact that, over the course of many years, state property in Sofia was basically sold out at low prices, and now we have to build new buildings to host new institutions vital for our society?
Despite its small capacity, Emel Etem’s Ministry has done a lot to improve communication among the various institutions dealing with disasters and emergencies. This is something that Bulgarians see for themselves. Along the Danube today, representatives of the State Agency for Civil Protection, the Fire Brigade, Defence Ministry, the army, mayors, regional governors, and so on, are working together.
It is obvious that Bulgarian state does not have an effective enough policy when it comes to natural disasters. We do not have an updated map of the damaged infrastructure. This is a necessity, something that we have started working on. We must know the weak points in this infrastructure, the risk zones in it. We must know where to invest, not only this year, but in the short-term plan for the years up to 2009, and after that in the long-term plan up to 2015. We all suffer from the poor state of the infrastructure because infrastructure itself had turned into a disaster, a cause of deaths, road accidents and other problems.
I can list some of the reasons for the poor state of the infrastructure.
In 1998 the Meliorations Fund was closed. This fund had the task of investing in riverbeds, dams, pumping stations and many other facilities linked to the water infrastructure. At present the only 70 per cent of the sewers are built in the cities, and most of the villages even do not have one. This is also part of the problem of the large scale of the floods.
In Bulgaria, losses of water come to 57 per cent. Refuse sites take up more than 200 000 decares of territory. More than 900 landslides have been caused. I can give you an example. The town of Oryahovo was one of the worst damaged by last year’s floods. In the town, although there was a lack of funding, the state managed to build a drainage system 50 years ago. The system was so effective that for many years Oryahovo had no problems with floods and landslides. Until1990. Then the unit that maintained the system was closed. A few years later, the problems deepened, and last year a whole neighbourhood was threatened by a landslide. This is only one example and there are thousands.
Then we come to the next issue, money. We all know that the budget of the state is not enough. It reminds one of a small blanket with which a big man is trying to cover himself. If he covers his shoulders, his legs will get cold. The money is not enough because damage from last year’s floods came to 1.1 billion leva. No one denies this figure. The state, with all its resources and efforts, managed to allocate only 250 million leva., which is extremely insufficient and will not solve the problems. This money was only for emergency actions - restoring communications, houses’ infrastructure, and cleaning of riverbeds.
By the way, half of these funds were given to the municipalities. I want to thank the mayors who acted selflessly in extremely serious situations during last summer’s floods, after the floods this spring, and now along the Danube River. Of course probably more could have been done with these funds.
We should not ignore the climatic conditions last winter. I have talked to people dealing with construction. They say that now the subterranean waters in most of the flood damaged municipalities are only half a meter from the surface and there is no point in investing in something that soon afterwards will be destroyed.
I will repeat again what we heard yesterday from the ministers’ reports. We will do everything possible so that the allocated funds for recovering from the floods are used in the interests of citizens. Inspections have been started into what has done for what money, and by who, ministries, municipalities and private companies. Do not get the impression that all companies, which sometimes work for little profit, are scoundrels and only want to become rich. There are hundreds of thousands of sites that have already been completed, and yesterday the Government media office presented a video about this. Honestly I was a little bit offended that not a single member of the opposition came to see it, even out of curiosity to see what had been done and what is the scale of the recovery.
I will emphasise that we have many things to finish. The Ministry for Disaster Management must be organised really fast. The draft bill on citizens’ protection from natural disasters must enter Parliament soon, as well as the updated crisis management draft bill. This is almost done. We only need to approve the two bills in the Cabinet, and then to send them to Parliament.
Yesterday we heard some good and constructive ideas. For example, the statement by the chairman of the parliamentary committee on disaster management, who said that more money must be invested in prevention work and that every ministry must have this obligation in its capital expenses. This proposition, together with those about decentralisation, responsibilities of and opportunities for municipalities, will be most seriously and constructively considered by the Government when we start preparing for the new draft budget for next year.
We have many difficulties ahead of us. The danger of the floods still remains. That is why we need complete mobilisation of all institutions and most of all of the executive branch of government, to minimise potential damage. This will be among our priorities and commitments.
Thank you again for your confidence.”
