This story concerns the overfl owing garbage depot near Sofia in the middle of January. The depot was supposed to be closed at the end of 2004 but unfortunately it wasn’t and the residents of the village started their effective protests against this. For six days the city of Sofi a was covered with garbage, around 6000 tons, because there was no access for the garbage trucks to enter the depot.
Sofia’s Mayor Stefan Sofi anski has had talks with experts from the Ministry of Environment and Water on solving the problems with Sofia’s Suhodol dump. He discussed the possibility of appointing a place for building a modern waste-recycling depot so that Suhodol be used only for storing building waste materials with the Ministry experts.
Local people gathered in Suhodol to protest against the fact that the Sofia municipality was failing to keep its promise for building a modern garbage-recycling depot. They claimed that the heaps of garbage that litter their district were poisonous.
Meanwhile the garbage trucks were not able to transport the waste from the capital, since the road to the Suhodol dump was blocked by the locals. The garbage containers on the streets were already full, creating discontent among the citizens and guests of the capital. Sofia residents were at a loss in the face of the piling litter along the city streets.
Sofia’s mayor, Stefan Sofi anski, promised the protestors that the household garbage depot will not be expanded.
Sofia’s municipality pledged to work on the resolution of the problem with the garbage depot used by the capital city in the suburban area of Suhodol after the local residents protested against the failure to close it by the end of last year.
The garbage depot in Suhodol had to be closed, covered in and used for medical leftovers only, but the city municipality had failed to observe the agreed deadline, protesters reminded. Meanwhile, heaps of garbage continued to litter the small district environment.
Sofia does have a plan to build a modern garbage-recycling depot, but has gone behind with its construction is what mayor Stefan Sofi anski told protesters. He asked for a one-week adjournment to let municipal officials work out a compromising solution of the problem.
He also said the delay was caused by a shortage of funds to build a waste recycling plant that could solve the problem. Construction of such a facility would cost about EUR 100 M (100 million euros?).
Meanwhile, Sofi a faced six days of garbage staying uncollected from containers, as trucks were still not allowed to transport the waste from the capital.
The 13th of January 2005 – The day of resolution
Sofia was unblocked from garbage, eager on clean streets
The six-day protests of Suhodol residents against the local garbage dump were ceased and garbage-overwhelmed trucks began transporting the piles of litter.
The outcome of the crisis, which if prolonged threatened to spread contagious diseases across the 1.5-million city because of the relatively warm weather, was reached after tough negotiations between the protestors and Sofia’s municipality.
Sofia’s mayor, Stefan Sofi anski, promised the capital would be completely cleaned up in up to three days. Experts said that after the six days of garbage-depositing blockage the capital must have been stuck with nearly 6000 tons of litter.