All available equipment of "Motorways" helps in flood clean-up

All the available heavy equipment of the companies with the regional ministry as a principal are included in the assistance to the villages of Karlovo. Volunteers will mainly help to clear sediment and fallen trees as well as rebuild all infrastructure.

All the equipment of ,,Motorways" was mobilized to help the distressed areas. A 40-strong toll management team has been deployed on the ground and 10 road construction companies are helping with heavy machinery. The regional ministry assured that the equipment will reach all settlements.

"At the moment our first task is to make the settlements in the region passable, also VIK-Plovdiv is working on removing the failures of the pumping stations, which are near these settlements," said Deputy Minister of Regional Development Zahari Hristov in "The Day Begins".

Four groups of the military were also distributed in Slatina, Bogdan and Karavelovo as well as the Air Force, which was involved in the clearance.

"Army personnel are basically involved in what the equipment can't do. Mainly on the streets and public places," said Brigadier General Deyan Deshkov.

The police assured that all the affected villages are being guarded round the clock and the hard-to-reach and remote houses are being crawled on foot.

"Additional patrols are being sent around the clock to ensure public order, to prevent any encroachment on the property of the local population, to prevent looting, and in addition to guard the equipment, which is currently being used for the reconstruction work on the cleaning of the streets and yards," said Commissioner Kostadin Kostov - Head of the Security Police Department at the Plovdiv Regional Police Directorate.

And while life in the affected villages is gradually returning, the agriculture ministry said checks made have not found illegal logging in the forest, which local people say is one of the causes of the disaster. The cards are to be checked for the last 10 years.

"The intensity of logging in the area of the catchment where the water was collected, which is somewhere around 20 square kilometers, a pretty serious catchment, there is no excessive logging," said Yavor Gechev - interim minister of agriculture.

According to the caretaker agriculture minister, the disaster is of colossal proportions. In the morning block of BNT Yavor Gechev said that the riverbeds were not cleaned well enough and explained that the environmental standards provide for a zone of 15 meters around the rivers, where trees should not be cut down.

The agriculture ministry said checks on what logging was being done in the area would continue.