On the 28th of June 2018, The World Bank (WB) and the Ministry of Environment and Water (MoEW) agreed to a Reimbursable Advisory Service (RAS) contract to deliver an Advisory Program. The Government of Bulgaria (GoB) / Ministry of Environment and Water (MoEW) requested the Bank’s support in elaborating the country’s next-generation River Basin Management Plans (RBMPs), which were required by the EU Water Framework Directive, and the Flood Risk Management Plans (FRMPs) foreseen in the EU Floods Directive. In both cases, four plans needed to be prepared (one for each of the country’s four River Basins) to cover the 2022-2027 period.
This is the third generation of RBMPs and the second generation of FRMPs. The plans essentially result in a Program of (structural and non-structural) Measures that are expected to be implemented during the plans’ validity period. Among others, the plans significantly influence the country’s investment programs in wastewater collection and treatment, flood control structures, and river restoration for the next EU programming period. They define the country’s ability to ensure a water-secure development path for its people, its economy and its environment.
The specific objective was to support the WB and the MoEW in addressing the challenges in the 3rd cycle of RBMP. The GoB had made tangible improvements between the first and the second cycle of RBMPs. Nevertheless, gaps remained in several fields: monitoring, water body classification, inter-calibration, biological status, chemical status, hydromorphology etc. These gaps occurred, sometimes differently, in each of the 4 River Basin Directorates (RBD) that were necessary to prepare the RBMPs. A gap analysis precisely identified and quantified these gaps and helped propose a way to partially or completely fill them. The gap analysis was conducted by using three main sources of information:
- Gaps identified by RBDs and MoEW;
- Gaps identified by the Commission evaluation report; and
- Gaps identified by experts in the country.