Bulgaria

Environmental Pros and Cons

Bulgaria's labor force is heavily dependent on services (56.3 percent) and industry (32.7 percent). And while almost 70 percent of the population lives in urban areas and only 11 percent of the labor force is engaged in agriculture, the per capita income of $9,000, unemployment rate of 11.5 percent, and poverty rate of 13.4 percent mean that backyard gardening, canning, and informal urban agriculture are crucial components of livelihoods throughout the country. All Bulgarians have access to safe drinking water and improved sanitation.

Indiscriminate usage of pesticides in the past continues to create environmental problems for Bulgaria. In 1996, for instance, an inventory revealed that large quantities of organochlorine pesticides, which have been banned by the government, are still stockpiled. High concentrations of hydrocarbons (HCBs) have been found in the Danube, Dnieper, and Dniester Rivers. HCB residues dropped extensively in Bulgaria between the 1970s and the 1990s. On the other hand, lindane continued to show up in the Bulgarian waters of the Danube. Pollution has also been found in estuaries in areas of Bulgaria where oil production refineries are located.

Offering a more positive view of Bulgaria's environment than that presented by the Regional Environmental Center, the Bulgarian Council of Ministers has identified Bulgaria's environmental strengths as low air, water, and soil pollution, overall cleanliness, rich biological diversity, legislation and programs to promote environmentalism, a high percent of nuclear power use, and a well developed pollution monitoring system. Nevertheless, the study also identified environmental weaknesses in Bulgaria that include a shortage of funding for environmental programs, water shortages, inefficient water usage, high noise pollution, high levels of transportation pollution, a lack of administrative oversight capacity, persistent “hot spots” of pollution in large cities, and continued problems of waste disposal.

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