Environmentalists from all over the country are organizing protests today against the amendments to the Water Act and the regulation on the use of surface waters, proposed by the Minister of Environment and Water in the caretaker government Asen Lichev.

“The amendments aim to mitigate the requirements for building new hydroelectric power stations in protected territories,” Nikolay Grazhdanski from Panega 2021 angling club commented for the BNR. According to Dimitar Kumanov from Balkanka association the amendments proposed legalize the illegally built power stations. “With the exception of three hydroelectric power plants, all others do not have constituted construction rights, and the minister wants this situation to go on forever,” he added.