Water rationing: the failure of state governance
There is no other island of failed socialist ideas that so visibly affects the daily lives of citizens as the management of water supply and sanitation in Bulgaria. Regional cities in the third decade of the 21st century suffer from water rationing – yes, water supply is suspended for a large part of the day, and this does not spur a major national scandal, as if everyone has accepted this as the natural state of affairs.
In short, we witness – and tens of thousands are not just observing, but directly enduring in their everyday lives – the agony of a combination of neglect of basic economic principles, denial of market incentives, and insistence on retaining complete state (municipal) control over water supply, sanitation, and sewage treatment activities.
No water on tap at home is not equivalent to drought as a climatic phenomenon. Such explanations are flat on the level of kindergarten “I didn’t break it” excuses. Water in nature is one thing, but it reaches home in an urbanized territory through man-made infrastructure. The same is true of sewage. This is why “water in the home” is no longer a “gift of nature” but rather an “economic good” – it’s supply requires conscious human initiative involving technology, capital investment, maintenance, management, etc. Every economic good has a price that reflects supply and demand. The price gives signals both to users – how much and how to use – and to providers – how much and when to invest, what maintenance, etc.
How are the state and municipalities doing? So far – failing miserably, or doing some work with scandals of corruption and mismanagement. It is enough to follow the saga of half a billion allocated supposedly for dam repairs and a billion for water supply and sewerage. Drinking (household) water losses from source to the tap exceed 60% nationally, and in certain areas and localities are probably almost 100%.
Incidentally, comparative macro data clearly illuminate how little resources are being directed to water infrastructure investment. Simply put, with 60-year-old etherite pipes, we are doomed to a water scarcity and rationing. For the past 15 years, Bulgaria has been on the tail end of investment in water and sanitation infrastructure within the CEE region. Only in Slovenia and Estonia is the value of investment lower – countries with 3 to 5 times smaller population and territory. Even in Lithuania and Latvia, which are dwarfs compared to Bulgaria, investments are higher. Greece, Slovakia and Hungary have invested 3 times more than Bulgaria, and the Czech Republic – four and a half times. And we do not include the more developed countries in Western and Northern Europe at all, where the gap is enormous.
The reasons are various, all trivial and foolish – in some cases waiting for a EU grant, in others rejecting investment because the price of water for consumers will have to rise to repay higher depreciation for the new assets, and somewhere the companies practically tolerate theft and non-payment of bills because they do not want to confront openly the “grafters”.
What to do? Privatizing water and sewerage activities through open concession procedures, professional management by private investors, rules and pricing based on realistic business plans, increase of new investments in infrastructure and maintenance.
