OPEN LETTER
From the Lyulin Initiative Committee and the Association for the Protection of the Health and Life of the Populace and the Environment
Sofia, June 11, 2003
To
The state institutions
The local authorities
The public organisations
The media
The citizens of the western residential districts of Sofia
On the occasion of the attempt on the part of the Roads Executive Agency to push through questionable projects and environment hazard reports pertaining to the so-called Lyulin motorway (part of the Pan-European Corridor IV) without abiding by Bulgarian or European legislation in their provisions for public discussion and co-ordination of the project, we hereby declare the following:
1. We express our unquestionable support for the construction of part of the Pan-European Corridor IV through the territory of this country and for the utilisation of the pre-accession funds of the European Commission for the creation of a modern infrastructure, which would contribute to making Bulgaria a part of the all-European economy;
2. In our opinion, the funds extended by the European Commission should be utilised with the maximum efficiency in good projects bringing benefits to both Bulgarian society and our common European home, of which Bulgaria is part.
It is also our opinion, however, that the idea to route a Pan-European Corridor though densely populated urban territories of the city of Sofia and through the "B" protected zones of two of the most famous spa centres in Bulgaria - Bankya and Gorna Banya - IS NOT A GOOD ONE.
The negative side effects of the projects is so great as to make the price of losses in the field of public health care and spa tourism publicly unacceptable for the following reasons:
the projected traffic for 2020 runs at 60,000 vehicles in 24 hours. In order to step on the Lyulin motorway the traffic will have to pass through the Lyulin and Ovcha Koupel residential districts along the now existing ring road. After that the vehicles will pass through the "B" protected zones of the Bankya and Gorna Banya spas, inevitably ruining unique natural and economic resources;
The mineral waters and the climate of Bankya are used for treatment and rehabilitation of cardio-vascular, neurological and pulmonary diseases. Some 200,000 patients annually avail themselves of the services of treatment centres and recreation homes in whose construction hundred of millions of levs were invested. The mineral waters bottled in the region enjoy the largest market share in this country. There are also catchments of mineral springs, which have yet to be exploited;
The "B" protected zone of the spas also includes the villages of Ivanyane, Malo Buchino and Sofia's Suhodol suburb. It is exactly here that City Council bureaucrats located the only landfill of the capital, had it expanded three times over the last ten years and filled with 6.0 mln cubic metres of waste. At the time of writing, a Depot for Hazardous Biological Waste is also under construction. This infrastructure project is a serious threat to the climate and the mineral waters in the region;
Add to this the construction of Pan-European Corridor IV and you will have an environmental catastrophe for all western regions of Sofia. Because of the kettle character of Sofia Plain the motorway smog will spread to 500 m from the route and the prevailing western winds will carry it over the spas and residential districts all the year round. The heath care costs and the damages will be much greater than any benefits the 9.0 km stretch from ring road Suhodol to Malo Buchino pass might bring.
In addition to the fact that it does not meet the originally set objectives, the Lyulin motorway will be unable to serve its function for, in order to preserve the resources in the region, the Ministry of Environment and Waters requires the following during operation:
"organisation should be provided for to reroute the traffic in periods of sustained inversions of temperature" - item 21 of Decision No. 32-15/2002 of the Ministry. At the same time, such inversions are a usual occurrence in the region;
"the greatest number of land surface inversions are recorded from July through October, they being most powerful and continuous in the fall and winter" (p. 19 of Preliminary Environmental Hazards Report on Lyulin Motorway drawn up by a team headed by Prof. Boris Nikolov), i.e. more than six months a year.
In view of the above-stated argument we hereby declare:
We adamantly refuse to give our consent for the design and construction of a cross-border motorway along any of the projected routes between Bankya and Gorna Banya;
We suggest that Pan-European Corridor IV be constructed along a new environmentally and economically viable route to the west of Lyulin Mountain, the city of Sofia and Pernik, out of densely populated urban territories and the "B" protected zone of the national balneological centres;
We insist on wise statesmanship approach and decisions for the preservation and enhancement of the national natural and economic wealth of Bulgaria and its capital;
We demand that the Government read the Governance Programme it adopted in its part titled Preservation of the Environment and Waters and to quote at least one point that does not contradict this project;
We hereby also insist that any type of pseudo-professional and narrow bureaucratic interests, ideas or expectations be eliminated;
We demand decisions, which take into account the requirements for sustainable development, i.e. improvement of living conditions without that being at the expense of exhausted natural resources or bequeathing insurmountable (or costly) problems to the generations to come;
In short, we demand abidance by the laws of the Republic of Bulgaria.
LYULIN INITIATIVE COMMITTEE, Sofia 1618, POB 208, which includes:
MALO BUCHINO INITIATIVE COMMITTEE
IVANYANE INITIATIVE COMMITTEE
BANKYA INITIATIVE COMMITTEE
Association for the Protection of the Health
and Life of the Populace and the Environment - SUHODOL
32 Trayan Tanev St.
Suhodol,
Sofia 1362
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