Pumped Up Part 2

There has been a lot of nonsense on Facebook about water shortages in Bulgaria. It has been suggested that some villages always suffer from inadequate water pressure (or no water at all) every summer. Of course, it is difficult to say whether this because there just is not enough water in the reservoir or the spring or if it is because the pipes are so old and leaking all the time. I would therefore like to reassure anyone who is thinking of buying a rural property in Bulgaria and I will try to give some helpful advice.

First of all, there is no official list of which villages are supposed to have water shortages and which ones do not. It is probably the case that many villages do get their water from local springs, not from the main reservoirs, so there are going to be some serious water supply problems in the summer months, when many Bulgarians leave their apartments in the cities and go to their summer holiday homes. Many villages (and not just villages) are going to have problems if the summer is very long, hot and dry, but perhaps this will not be so much of an issue if there is some rain during the summer months. Thirty or forty years ago, many people in Bulgaria did not have swimming pools or dishwashers or many other things that use lots of water, so perhaps increased demand is also part of the problem.

Secondly, there are some cheap and simple ways to mitigate the effects of a drought, such as buying some water storage tanks and making sure that your guttering collects as much rainwater as possible. Maybe you will not want to drink this water, but you could certainly use it in the garden. Of course, one of the big advantages of buying a country property is that you might have your own well. Yes, you can buy bottled water, but most Bulgarians prefer to get their drinking water for free, from a local spring. These springs have usually been checked by the local authorities, to make sure that they safe for drinking. We have one just outside Elena and there is another one in Veliko Tarnovo that we sometimes use, on the forest road up to Arbanassi.

Thirdly, you should consider installing some large capacity water tanks in an outbuilding, together with an aquaphore pump. This pump will start working automatically, as soon as the water pressure drops. We have two 500 litre tanks and a kind Bulgarian neighbour helped us to install as new Steinberg pump. Having this sort of equipment is not very expensive and any good plumber should be able to sort this out for you. Finally, you should remember that aquaphore pumps can be damaged by frost, so disconnect your pump in very cold weather and keep it somewhere a bit warmer, so that any water inside the pump will not freeze.