Asen Lichev: I will first order the illegal dump of the Ring Road in Sofia to be cleared

The first thing I will do is to order the removal of the illegal landfill on the Ring Road in Sofia, which is located on a cow pasture, I can not allow such an encroachment on nature and food, the new caretaker Minister of Environment and Water told 3eNews Asen Lichev. There will be a lot of work over the next three months and I will hardly have free time, but my main priority will be to be loyal to the sovereign's environment, he said. The environment is not an ordinary trade commodity, I will work for its protection, preservation and development as a resource for generations, Lichev concluded succinctly.

From 1992 to February 2017 he worked in the Ministry of Environment and Water, retired in the cabinet Borisov 2 with Minister of Environment and Water Ivelina Vasileva. Over the years he has held the positions of junior specialist in groundwater protection, chief expert in groundwater protection, head of the department "Use and protection of groundwater". For the last 12 years he has held the position of Director-Director of the Water Directorate, Head of the Water Use Department, Director of the Water Directorate, Director of the Water Management Directorate. Its main functions and responsibilities were water management, water regulations, water monitoring, water resources assessment, Concept of National Strategy for Management and Development of the Water Sector in Bulgaria until 2015, Water Management Act, international water relations with neighboring countries, including: national position for Greece, removal of the Tundzha Dam from the pending issues, etc. He is the Deputy Head of the Working Group for the Development of Instructions for the Organization of the System for Monitoring, Design, Construction and Operation of Environmental Monitoring Networks in Areas Affected by the Uranium Industry, approved by the Chairman of the Energy Committee in 1996.

Asen Lichev is an engineer geologist-hydrogeologist, graduated in hydrogeology and engineering geology at MGU "St. Ivan Rilski ”. Prior to that, he worked for 10 years from 1981 to 1991 in NIPRORUDA AD as head of the laboratory "Earth Mechanics and Tailings" with the main functions of conducting regional hydrogeological surveys and assessment of groundwater such as groundwater modeling by the method of electrohydrodynamic analogy. , the hydroecological assessment of the uranium mining section "Cheshmata" ("Haskovo" deposit), assessment of the stability of tailings, assessment of the stability of the slopes of the open pit mines "Medet", "Ellatsite", "Tsar Asen", "Assarel", etc .. He worked on a project for feasibility study and preparation of a technical project for the implementation of water protection measures in the area of ​​the Buchim mine, Republic of Macedonia with the contracting authority UNDP (UNDP), Republic of Macedonia.

In recent years, after leaving the system, Lichev has criticized the government several times, especially in discussions about the water crisis and the low water level of the dams.

In an interview with 3eNews at the beginning of the year, he announced that plumbing is a black box in itself and took us back 20 years with the topic that since 2002 the Water Act has fixed a mechanism to exclude losses over 25% from the price of the water service, but lobbyists intervened and the provision was repealed in 2005. Now there are no legal restrictions on any losses to be calculated in the price. However, as a caretaker minister, he will not be able to initiate legislative changes. According to him, the increase of the structures in the sector leads to an increase of irresponsibility. And when a year ago he was offered to join the management of the new water and sewerage holding, he refused because he did not receive guarantees for the independence of the institution, for the functioning of which the state provided BGN 1 billion. Only a day ago it became clear that over BGN 1.6 million under the Operational Program "Environment" are in question. He also criticized the project for a National Real-Time Water Monitoring System for the Iskar River for BGN 7 million, which never happened. It remains to be seen whether there will be clear lighting of the sick places in the sector.

According to experts from the nature protection community, with the long management of the Water Management Directorate in the Ministry of Ecology, he had a lot of time to raise and solve important problems for the sector - water losses, dam management, small hydropower plants in protected areas and scraping of construction materials in riverbeds.

Lichev will focus on other departments in the field of environment - waste, biodiversity, climate change, so it is especially interesting what team he will choose in his office. On the agenda are several criminal procedures for biodiversity and clean air, as well as problems with waste management.