Residents living in the so-called new section of Bansko — where foreign tourists stay on ski trips — couldn’t shower, brush their teeth or drink water from the tap from November 27 to December 1. But why they couldn’t enjoy these everyday conveniences is unclear.

Mayor Alexander Kravarov said the water shortage resulted from a temporary failure in the water system. But residents said the problem has been long-running. Both the mayor and residents blame the shortage on over-building in the small mountain town.

The pace of building in Bansko this year is almost the same compared to last year, Kravarov told The Sofia Echo. Since 2002, when construction on the ski gondola began, more than 300 construction permits for hotels and apartments have been issued, for a total of 30 000 new beds.

That growth might not have increased from the past, but it’s still too much. Measures to prevent overcrowding have already been taken, Kravarov said. Investor interest is re-directed towards the nearby village of Dobrinishte, which will begin to develop as a winter centre starting next year.

Bansko is already looking for a company to carry out the general development plan for the Dobrinishte ski resort project, the Bansko Bulgarian-language newspaper Utre reported December 1. The project’s cost is estimated at 260 million leva. Development must be completed within three years. It envisages the construction of a new gondola and 45km of ski trails.

Dobrinishte is located in the Pirin Mountain, which offers excellent conditions for winter tourism as well as for summer spa tourism. There are more than 20 mineral springs in the area, Kravarov said.

Other measures to curb Bansko overdevelopment and re-direct development to nearby Dobrinishte include new zoning planning, reducing floor level allowance to 10m and limits on construction density that limit 300 sq m of development for one decare of land.

But residents say the rules are too late. Overbuilding has already caused water and power problems, they say. Almost every house in Bansko is either a hotel or a mehana.

An imbalance favuoring commercial real estate has led to a drastic increase in power and water consumption and shortages.

But Kravarov denies there are water shortages. “Everywhere, each neighbourhood constantly has water,” he said.

He expects the lack of water to be more of a problem for Bansko in the future rather than the present.  There are already projects in development that in total envisage an additional 30 litres of water per second. The municipality is not ready, he said. “At the moment Bansko does not have a water regime anywhere,” said Kravarov.

A new 1700-cubic-litre reservoir is also being built to address the problem. It will supply water in the tourist zone in the town, where most complaints of shortages arise. In praising the new reservoir, however, Kravarov contradicted himself and admitted that the new neighbourhood often experiences water system failures.

But he added that these failures occur because the neighborhood’s water systems are not connected to Bansko’s main water system. Investors, not the municipality, are responsible for building a water infrastructure for buildings there. Such investors often look after their own development projects without necessarily contributing to the surrounding infrastructure.

Should measures not be taken, Bansko risks a water deficiency of 30 litres a second by 2012, the mayor said.

In the meantime, the municipality has instituted rules to blunt the impact of so much building.

As of December 4, Kravarov promised, all digging jobs cease and from December 15 all building would stop. Building action will carry on only around Bansko where it would not bother tourists. By December 15, trucks would no longer transport construction materials through the town. If a truck is seen in Bansko, he said, it will be pulled over and fined.

Kravanov could not guarantee these rules would be enforced all the time, because law enforcement is the job of the police. But he promised the tension arising out of excessive construction work would disappear after the middle of the month.

Despite an expected increase in the rush of tourists, the mayor believes Bansko’s tired citizens must be patient for at least another two years. They are profiting from the boom, after all. “People in Bansko are earning a lot of money from tourism, almost every house in Bansko has been renovated,” he said.

Also, Kravarov said, in a town of 10000 people, there are 4500 cars. That’s a sign of prosperity, he said.

The mayor didn’t want to dampen Bansko’s development prospects too much, however. Speaking of the town’s future development as a ski resort, Kravarov said that companies which had previously predicted a decline in development there were wrong.

“They said investor interest towards Bansko would cease around 2004, but not only has it not stopped, it continues,” he said. “Prices are already skyrocketing to 200 euro a sq m of agricultural land. In apartments, sq m are over 1000 euro. This is the reason for a greater interest in building small apartment blocks as opposed to hotels.”

The Sofia Echo attempted several times to interview the manager of the water supply company for Bansko, Ivan Tsigoriin. His wife said he did not want to comment on the issue.

Soon after The Sofia Echo’s interview with the mayor, the water supply to the new part of the town was again flowing. The next morning, however, it stopped again.