Court orders Sofia city hall to wash streets to reduce air pollution
Sofia City Court ruled on July 8 to require Sofia city hall to wash streets more frequently in order to improve the air quality in the Bulgarian capital city.
The court’s decision is not the final ruling in the class-action air pollution lawsuit filed by a group of non-governmental organisations and individuals three years ago, legal news website lex.bg reported.
The lawsuit did appear likely to be concluded soon, which prompted the presiding judge to mandate the provisional measures, after the Environment Ministry could not designate experts to carry out the court-mandated forensic report into whether the city hall took appropriate measures to fight air pollution, the report said.
The city hall will be required to wash streets two times a month between May and September, and once monthly for the rest of the year. Additionally, the city hall was mandated to publish the average daily measurements of fine particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) on its website.
The court’s decision can be appealed at the Sofia Apellate Court, but Sofia city hall said it would not do so, with the measures ordered by the court already part of the municipal action plan currently being carried out, Bulgarian National Television reported.
(Sofia has been repeatedly criticsed for its air quality, especially in winter, when particulate matter concentration spikes due to the extensive use of solid fuel heating. Photo: dewfall/flickr.com)
