Bozhurishte Municipality and the local community – united against a Canadian investor. They are collecting signatures for a referendum – Stories

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A Canadian mining campaign has green light for exploratory drilling for the second quarter of this year in the area of ​​Zlatusha village, Bozhurishte municipality. The village is located 20 kilometers from the capital.

Investor intentions meet strong resistance from the local community. They are coming together signatures for holding a local referendum. The signature will be sent to the ombudsman. The main concerns are related to soil, water and air pollution.

The municipality of Bozhurishte opposes the exploratory drilling.

“We’ll make it so to become a national responsibility to prevent this concession and the implementation of this extraction“, commented Mihail Slavchev, municipal councilor in Bozhurishte Municipality, which will not be the only one affected by the drilling. Territories from the municipalities of Slivnitsa, Breznik, Pernik, Dragoman and Kostinbrod, as well as the Bankya District of the Capital Municipality are potentially affected.

The official investor presentation mentions that they are found impurities of arsenic with the goldwhich carries a risk of pollution, believes Eng. Georgi Andonov, an expert in the field of ferrous and non-ferrous metals.

The study area is in the immediate vicinity of Bankya and the mineral springs, where balneotherapy takes place and a large mineral water bottling company operates.

According to Eng. Andonov, the dust pollution will be “a barrage of carcinogenic metalswhich will be transported by air to Sofia”.

The price is too high, and the consequences are long-lasting, he points out. In his words, after a concession of 25-30 years, we remain “for centuries ahead with a crater and no restoration of nature“.

The funds that will enter the municipality cannot be compared with the health of the people, says municipal councilor Mihail Slavchev categorically, who expects support from other municipalities, including the capital one.

“We also expect support from the capital – to show that we are stronger than a foreign company that wants to make money at the expense of our health and nature.”

Hear more on the topic in the sound file.