Bulgaria ready to supply electricity to Serbia
Bulgaria is ready to supply electricity to Serbia, its neighbour where record floods have forced Belgrade to order increased electricity imports while power stations were being defended against being inundated.
Dragomir Stoynev, Bulgaria’s energy minister, repeated on May 21 a statement the previous day by deputy prime minister Daniela Bobova about Sofia’s willingness to supply electricity to Serbia.
He said that he would discuss with the National Electricity Company supplies for Serbia, adding that the quantities needed by Serbia would have to be specified.
On May 20, Serbian prime minister Aleksandar Vučić told a news conference that additional steps had been taken to protect units A and B at the Nikola Tesla coal-fired power station, which was now effectively protected by flood barriers, Serbian news website B92 said. The power station supplies about 50 per cent of Serbia’s electricity demand but production has been cut back against a background of the flood threat.
At another power station, the Kostolac coal-fired plant, flood defences also were being reinforced.
In Sofia, the embassy of Bosnia and Herzegovina said that it was accepting humanitarian donations for victims of the floods that had devastated the country. The main needs were for bottled water, canned food, blankets, detergents, disinfectants, nappies and baby food.
Donations are being accepted daily to May 23 from 9am to 5pm and on May 24 from 10am to 3pm. The embassy is in Alexander Zhendov Boulevard, Sofia.
The Serbian embassy in Sofia, at 3 Veliko Turnovo Street, also has been receiving donations, with a similar list of needs.
On May 21, the Bulgarian Red Cross said that it was now accepting only cash donations to assist flood victims in Serbia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina, having already opened its emergency reserve stores to send clothes, blankets, cots, shoes and rubber boots on May 20.
Bulgarian Red Cross lorries that left the previous day had already reached Belgrade, but distribution was difficult because of roads destroyed and closed by the flooding.
Sanitation and cleaning materials were much needed, but individual donations could not meet the needs and so it was better to send money to buy products from locations closer to the affected areas, the Bulgarian Red Cross said.
(Photo: greenhitma/sxc.hu)
