Author(s):
Chad Staddon - University of the West of England
Abstract:
This paper reviews several struggles over water resources in the mountains of postcommunist Bulgaria. Almost immediately after the collapse of the last communist government in November 1989 the country began to experience a new wave of popular unrest over water related development. Starting with the drought of the early 1990s and the Djerman-Skakavitsa diversion plan Bulgaria has been periodically convulsed by popular protest over water related development. There has subsequently been significant public opposition to the privatisation of the capital's water supply system by a UK/US consortium, the proposed development of another hydropower dam at Gorna Arda and the expansion of a highway through the environmentally sensitive Struma River valley. In reviewing these struggles I will focus on state-brokered attempts at mediation and the accommodation of local populations to their ultimate realisation.
