WFMD2024 – Bulgaria

Clean up of Dragovistitza river

It was one of the great World Fish Migration Day 2024 for us from Balkanka association. WFMD reflects how important free, healthy and clean rivers are: for people, for biodiversity, for healthy ecosystems. Because it’s not just about the fish. We all want access to healthy natural resources, to clean water, clean food, but the main condition for that is fish must be able to migrate. Because that’s how this system works. It’s a river. It must flow. #Freerivers

We from the Balkanka Association celebrated this day for the 9th year, conducting a large-scale cleaning of the Dragovishtitsa River. We covered a section of nearly 20 km of the cross-border river and more than 70 volunteers joined the action, united and with one common goal – To help one of the most beautiful rivers in Bulgaria, over which we found a number of dangers – polluting, mining activities, poaching, hydropower …

As a result of our efforts and those of the volunteers, as well as with the courtesy of the Kyustendil Municipality, approximately 3000 kg of household waste was collected and transported to the designated places.It didn’t go without the traditional plastic chair, car bumper, car tire and many, many plastic bottles, but the river is definitely much cleaner after the large-scale cleaning we organized 5 years ago.We thank all participants in this event, especially the children.