March 17 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's Montazhi has completed the construction of a new, 27 million levs ($15.1 million/13.8 million euro), VAT included, water mains system of the city of Pernik which has been suffering from a severe water shortage, local media reported on Tuesday.
Pernik is near the end of a prolonged water crisis as the town is expected to start receiving water from the new water mains system at the end of the week, public radio BNR quoted city mayor Stanislav Vladimirov as saying in an article published on the website of Bulgarian National Radio (BNR).
Starting Tuesday, the Pernik municipality will ease the restrictions on water consumption. After the launch of the new water mains system, water supply will be halted only during night hours.
The relaxation of water restrictions is being introduced mainly due to spread of the coronavirus disease that requires increased attention to personal hygiene.
Bulgaria's health ministry said earlier on Tuesday that the number of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in the country has increased to 67, after five new cases were were confirmed. Last week, Bulgaria's parliament declared a state of emergency until April 13, in order to enable the authorities to more efficiently fight the spread of the disease.
Last month, Vladimirov said that when the new water supply pipeline is commissioned, Pernik will stop receiving water from its Studena reservoir, which was almost empty at the time, and that in this way the dam can be refilled faster before becoming operational again.
Currently, the Student dam is one-third filled with water, BNR said.
The new pipeline will feed up to 300 litres of water per second to Pernik.
Pernik has been gripped by a severe water crisis since December due to dry weather in 2019 and the dilapidated water supply infrastructure in the region.The poor condition of the water supply network in Pernik municipality, which has not been rehabilitated for more than 50 years, leads to water losses of 76% on the territory of the municipality.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)