APPEAL
FOR THE SALVATION OF NATIONAL
CLIMATIC AND BALNEOTHERAPEUTICAL COMPLEX BANKYA

DEAR LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, The route of Ljulin Motorway (as part of the Trans-European Corridor No. IV from Thessalonica to Europe) is to be decided finally by the end of November 2003. According to the project developed by the Ministry of Regional Development and Urban Planning and the Ministry of Environment and Water, the motorway will be of the elevated road type (on columns), passing just 500 meters from the national climatic and balneotherapeutical complex of Bankya, along bare hills overlooking the town and under prevalent winds blowing from Ljulin to Bankya. For all of 8 km the route passes through the "B" protected zone of the Bankya complex (the villages of Ivanyane, Malo Bouchino and Gradoman) only 150 to 200 metres away from the houses! It reaches the ring road in the region of the Ljulin residential district.

Thanks to the existing natural conditions, Bankya has been the location of specialized centers for prophylactics, treatment and rehabilitation of cardio-vascular and neurological disorders for decades. Today some 2,000,000 Bulgarians are registered at the National Health Insurance Fund with cardio-vascular diseases on medicinal treatment! It is also known that cardio-vascular diseases account for 66 percent of the mortality rate in Bulgaria. Some 200,000 Bulgarians undergo treatment at Bankya annually, a climatic and balneotherapeutical centre of both national and international significance and promise.

Bankya has specific climatic conditions. Experts in the field maintain that in the case of increased pollution of the air poisonous photo-chemical smog could be formed in 55 percent of the days of the year! In such conditions surface air in the region could harbor enormous quantities of poisonous and carcinogenic substances exceeding dozens of times the permissible limits stipulated by Bulgarian laws. This will lead to an environmental disaster for a region unique for its air, climate and mineral springs.

The Ljulin Motorway is designed with six carriageways to accommodate over 60,000 vehicles in 24 hours (according to the environment hazard report dated April 2001), most of which heavy trucks! This is sufficient proof that the motorway will become an enormous and fatal pollutant of the region. Should there be smog in even a mere 2-3 percent of the days in the year Bankya will lose its significance as a climatic and balneotherapeutical centre. In turn, the neighboring recreation zone "B" (Ivanyane, Malo Bouchino, Gradoman) will lose the prospect of becoming a healthy region of the capital. Pollution, constant high noise and incessant vibrations from the Ljulin Motorway will be a catastrophe of Bankya.

The media campaign of the Road Executive Agency aims to imply (with unconvincing and misleading means) that the motorway will be completely harmless for the region of the Bankya resort complex and that this is the only possible route. We have proof that an objective environment hazard report was drafted in March 2002, offering as the most environment-friendly a route passing through the eastern part ofLjulinMountain at a considerable distance from the two resorts of Bankya and Gorna Banya. This environment hazard report was not given to the only body in Bulgaria authorised to rule on such reports, the Supreme Expert Environmental Council of the Ministry of Environment and Water. Instead it remains locked to this day in the safes of the Road Executive Agency.

There is yet another - in our opinion the best - variant for the Ljulin Motorway route, passing west behind Ljulin Mountain according to an existing project pending execution. Thus, a rerouting the heavy vehicle traffic will also save Sofia from pollution, a city currently contaminated with dangerous carcinogenic pollutants from vehicles way above the prescribed limits!

The facts indicate clearly that the environment hazard reports are regarded as a formality and the designing of the project was accompanied by inadmissible violations of Bulgarian legislation.

We unquestionably support Bulgaria's accession to the European Union as soon as possible and respectively the construction of Trans-European corridors, particularly Trans-European Corridor IV, but we want that to happen in a reasonable way, less hazardous for nature and people.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WE, THE UNDERSIGNED, APPEAL TO YOU FOR PROMPT MEASURES TO STOP THE PROJECT FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE LJULINMOTORWAY IN THE REGION OF THE NATIONAL BALNEOTHERAPEUTICAL AND CLIMATIC COMPLEX OF BANKYA AND REROUT IT ALONG ONE OF THE OTHER TWO POSSIBLE - AND ENVIRONMENTALLY ACCEPTABLE - WAYS!

WE ALSO APPEAL TO THE BULGARIAN ACADEMIC COMMUNITY - SCIENTISTS, DOCTORS, ENVIRONMENTALISTS, ENGINEERS AND THE OTHER STRATA OF THE NATIONAL INTELLIGENTSIA TO BECOME ACTIVE PARTICIPANTS IN THE STRUGGLE FOR SAVING THE TOWN OF BANKYA AND THE SURROUNDING REGION FROM THIS CALAMITOUS PROJECT!

September 2003
INITIATIVE COMMITTEE
FOR THE SALVATION OF THE NATIONAL BALNEOTHERAPEUTICAL
AND CLIMATIC COMPLEX OF BANKYA

e-mail: sosbankya@yahoo.com

Academician Panayot BONCHEV, Dr., Professor, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS), Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia - chemist
Academician Iliya TOMOV, MD, Professor, National Cardiac Hospital, Sofia - internist and cardiologist
Academician Choudomir NACHEV, MD, Professor, BAS - National Expert on Internal Diseases, cardiologist
Academician Dr. Nikolai POPOV, PhD, Professor, Medical University Sofia, BAS - medic, biologists
Corresponding Member Iliya BROUCHEV, PhD, BAS - engineering geology
Prof. Dobri LAZAROV, PhD, Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia - chemist
Prof. Vassil SIMEONOV, PhD, Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia - eco-chemist
Prof. Eng. Ivan GRANCHAROV, PhD, University of Chemical Technology and Metallurgy, Sofia - engineering ecology and environment protection
Prof. Alexander LENCHEV, PhD, Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia - chemical technology and environment protection
Prof. Elka PENCHEVA, PhD, BAS - eco-chemist
Prof. Georgi VALEV, PhD, University of Architecture and Construction Technology - geodesist
Prof. Ivelin KOULEV, PhD, Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia - radio ecologist
Prof. Dr. Bogdan PETROUNOV, PhD, Director of the National Centre of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases - internist and alergologist
Prof. Dr. Zheni MILEVA, PhD - internist, alergologist and clinical biochemist
Prof. Dr. Bozhko BOZHKOV, PhD - internist, cardiologist and alergologist
Prof. Dr. Tereza DJEMILEVA-KONOVA, PhD - parodontology and conditions of the oral mucous membranes
Prof. Dr. Drago DROUMEV, PhD -pharmacologist
Assoc. Prof. Yordanka PETROVA, PhD, Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia - eco-toxicologist
Assoc. Prof. Anton POPOV, PhD, Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia - geographer
Assoc. Prof. Dimitar ZHEKOV, PhD, University of Architecture and Construction Technology - geodesist
Sen. Res. Assoc. II degree Ivan DOONCHEV, PhD, BAS - geologist
Aassoc. Prof. Dr. Lyuba Terzieva, PhD, Alexandrovska University Hospital - internist and cardiologist