A public consultation on the project of the Program for ambient air quality improvement on the territory of the municipality of Plovdiv for the period 2018-2023 and Action Plan belonging thereto, organized by the Municipality of Plovdiv, took place on February 14th, 2018, in the House of culture “Boris Christov”. Mr. Rozalin Petkov, deputy mayor „Municipal economy, healthcare, ecology and waste management”, was the moderator of the public consultation.
The executive director of the Non-profit association “The Business for Plovdiv” Mr. Angel Stoev actively participated in the public consultation. Mr. Stoev announced that the Association had submitted at the registry of the Municipality of Plovdiv a package of 46 measures for ambient air quality improvement, many of which were specific ones and with deadlines. He put questions, related to the method of financing for its realization; possible changes in the reporting requirements of the implementation of measures, namely preparing reports at shorter intervals of time and immediate access for the citizens to their content; increasing the number of automated measuring stations for full compliance with the area of 102km2 of the town.
During the discussion on the afforestation of Plovdiv, Mr. Stoev pointed out that the green space of a town was, metaphorically speaking, its lungs, and that one of the 46 measures, proposed by the Non-profit association “The Business for Plovdiv”, had been carrying out a linear afforestation along the boulevards and the streets, respectively 10 thousand trees a year for a period of five years. The executive director of the Association emphasized that such campaign would certainly obtain full cooperation of private companies, organizations and citizens. He added that the Association fully endorsed the major afforestation project of an area of 655 decares in the Park „Recreation and culture“ in the coming four years.
Mr. Rozalin Petkov indicated that the measure establishing a fund, which revenue from penalties would enter in and which, together with funds from EU programs, would finance projects, related to ambient air quality improvement, had been submitted from three organizations and in his opinion this measure surely would be approved and adopted. Mr. Petkov declared that after considering carefully all supposed measures, the Municipality of Plovdiv would announce at a press conference which of them were approved to become a part of the Program for ambient air quality improvement on the territory of the municipality for the period 2018-2023.