Bookings cancelled on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast over fears of sea water pollution after the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam wall in Ukraine

Cancellations of holiday bookings on the southern Black Sea coast after the destruction of the wall of the Nova Kakhovka dam in Ukraine. Tourists were worried whether the water on the Bulgarian coast is clean and suitable for bathing. The environment ministry assures that Bulgaria has once again reported no evidence of pollution.

Hoteliers in Sunny Beach resort say that cancelled bookings are now 50% more than cancellations during the COVID -19 pandemic.

Rumen Monchev, hotelier: "My surprise is that most of them are from Bulgaria. They call and say we don't want to come because we are very worried, the sea may be infected."

Hoteliers urge not to speculate on the pollution from Nova Kakhovka.

Aleksandar Aleksandrov, hotelier: "We get inquiries from our guests, mostly from the UK and Germany, about whether the sea is clean, whether the war is having an impact. We give information. We base it on the water measurements that were taken now, recently, we translate the result and send it to them."

Ministry of Environment: No reasons for concern about the purity of sea water in Bulgaria

Since the beginning of May, Regional Health Inspectorate-Burgas has been checking the water quality along the southern Black Sea coast every Monday.

"We already have about 130 inspections where samples have been taken from the bathing areas. So far, 113 have been tested, for which the results have come out, there are no deviations from the required standards under Regulation 5," explained Dr. Mariana Kofinova, Burgas Regional Health Inspectorate.

The sea water is safe for bathing, I do not expect any problems

Holidaymakers who are already on holiday on the Black Sea coast are not worried.

Ventsislav Vassilev, a tourist from Sofia: "As far as I know there are teams from Kaliakra who check the quality of the sea water every day."

Sabina Sal, tourist from Hungary: "I am aware of the situation, but what I see is very, very clean, the water is nice, warm, ideal for a holiday."

The environment ministry said that weekly monitoring for the quality of sea water shows that because of the currents, potential pollution is receding from the Romanian border and cannot reach the Bulgarian border.