Stolipinovo
Encyclopedia
Stolipinovo is a district of the Bulgarian town of Plovdiv
and the most populous predominantly Roma-inhabited district on the Balkans
with a population of about 45,000 people. It is a ghetto
located on the outskirts of the city, in its northeastern part on the right bank of the Maritsa
.
Stolipinovo differs from other Roma communities in Bulgaria
as only 5,000 inhabitants identify themselves as Christian and romani-speaking
Roma ("Dassikane Roma"), whereas the Muslim and Turkish-speaking
majority claims to be of Turkish
origin ("Xoraxane Roma").
Due to accumulated debts for electricity and water surpassing 3 million euro, in 2002 the (then state-owned) local supplier shut down electricity completely for all inhabitants of Stolipinovo. This kind of "kin liability" has been widely regarded as illegal by human rights organisations and led to a spontaneous riot. After the situation calmed down, the district was supplied electricity for six hours per night. This regime has not yet been abolished, despite an October 31, 2006, ruling by the Plovdiv Regional Court, that the practice of the Austrian EVN
monopolist was "discriminatory." Stolipinovo is unique in having electricity distribution board
s raised on poles several metres tall.
Sanitation
is poor owing to the shortage of safe water, due to burst pipes. Piped water rarely reaches the highest floors of apartment buildings. In most of the illegal buildings there is no water supply at all. The sewers in Stolipinovo are mostly dysfunctional and overflowing, forming puddles in the streets. Illegal buildings are not connected at all. Household waste is typically hurled from windows and balconies of apartments onto heaps on the ground below.
Inevitably, these problems caused a hepatitis type A
epidemic in the summer of 2006 which affected at least 637 persons in Stolipinovo, and spread to other parts of the city, Sheker Mahala
in particular. As a result, RIOKOZ of the Ministry of Health completed a mass immunisation campaign of children in Plovdiv by the end of October 2006. Other emergency measures undertaken by the municipality included dismantlement of illegal kiosks that had lined the streets and disposal of refuse left uncollected for years.
pronounced a decision, with which the electricity regime in Stolipinovo was proclaimed discriminatory.
The overcoming of this humanitarian and economic problem, which had been neglected for many years, was undertaken by EVN
Bulgaria – a subsidiary of the Austrian utility company, which in 2004 acquired the Electricity Distributing Companies in South Eastern Bulgaria and inherited the debts, the regime, the damaged electricity grid, and the problematic relations with the clients. Company’s experts prepared a complete technical project, a programme for public-private partnership and an information campaign, the implementation of which took almost a year. The electricity grid was entirely renovated, including the installation of new on-ground boards, which allows a visual control on the readings of the electricity meters on behalf of the clients.
The project paid attention also to activities for improvement of the supplier-client relations. The old payments were stretched out according to a socially bearable scheme. Within the work on the project a lot of families, who had previously been illegally joined to the grid, were separated as new subscribers in compliance with the legal requirements. On one hand this improved the relations with the clients, and on the other restored their faith in the company. EVN
appointed Roma people to consulting positions working in the neighbourhood. Their obligations are to consult the clients upon comprehending the readings of their electricity meters as well as to carry out information campaigns directed to energy efficiency. Company’s cash desks facilitating payments were opened in the neighbourhood.
As a result, since 2007 the Roma community in Stolipinovo has started receiving 24-hour electricity supply. About 3 million EUR has been invested in the entire replacement of 185 kilometers of electricity grid, renovation or construction of a total of 17 transformer stations, opening of 4 cash desks on the territory of the neighbourhood, joining 6 400 subscribers to the grid. Success has been achieved, which few believed in before: the collectability in the neighbourhood has been raised from 3% in 2006 to 85% after the fulfillment of the project, and the technological losses decreased from 40% to 5%. The success in Stolipinovo reassured the management of EVN
Bulgaria to apply the programme in other Roma-inhabited neighbourhoods on the territory of South Eastern Bulgaria and to ensure electricity supply according to all present-day standards.
Plovdiv
Plovdiv is the second-largest city in Bulgaria after Sofia with a population of 338,153 inhabitants according to Census 2011. Plovdiv's history spans some 6,000 years, with traces of a Neolithic settlement dating to roughly 4000 BC; it is one of the oldest cities in Europe...
and the most populous predominantly Roma-inhabited district on the Balkans
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
with a population of about 45,000 people. It is a ghetto
Ghetto
A ghetto is a section of a city predominantly occupied by a group who live there, especially because of social, economic, or legal issues.The term was originally used in Venice to describe the area where Jews were compelled to live. The term now refers to an overcrowded urban area often associated...
located on the outskirts of the city, in its northeastern part on the right bank of the Maritsa
Maritsa
The Maritsa or Evros , ) is, with a length of 480 km, the longest river that runs solely in the interior of the Balkans. It has its origin in the Rila Mountains in Western Bulgaria, flowing southeast between the Balkan and Rhodope Mountains, past Plovdiv and Parvomay to Edirne, Turkey...
.
Stolipinovo differs from other Roma communities in Bulgaria
Roma in Bulgaria
The Roma in Bulgaria are the country's second largest minority and third largest ethnic group . According to the 2001 census, there were 370,908 Roma in Bulgaria, equivalent to 4.7% of the country's total population, making Bulgaria the European country with the highest percentage of Roma.Experts'...
as only 5,000 inhabitants identify themselves as Christian and romani-speaking
Romani language
Romani or Romany, Gypsy or Gipsy is any of several languages of the Romani people. They are Indic, sometimes classified in the "Central" or "Northwestern" zone, and sometimes treated as a branch of their own....
Roma ("Dassikane Roma"), whereas the Muslim and Turkish-speaking
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
majority claims to be of Turkish
Turkish people
Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...
origin ("Xoraxane Roma").
Utilities
Since the end of the socialist era in 1989 there have been almost no investments in the infrastructure of Stolipinovo. In combination with the boom of illegal housing this led to severe problems with regards to electricity and water supply, sewerage and waste disposal.Due to accumulated debts for electricity and water surpassing 3 million euro, in 2002 the (then state-owned) local supplier shut down electricity completely for all inhabitants of Stolipinovo. This kind of "kin liability" has been widely regarded as illegal by human rights organisations and led to a spontaneous riot. After the situation calmed down, the district was supplied electricity for six hours per night. This regime has not yet been abolished, despite an October 31, 2006, ruling by the Plovdiv Regional Court, that the practice of the Austrian EVN
EVN Group
EVN Group is an Austrian-based producer and transporter of electricity, one of the largest in Europe having over three million customers in 14 countries. The company also operates in water treatment, natural gas supply and waste management business areas...
monopolist was "discriminatory." Stolipinovo is unique in having electricity distribution board
Distribution board
A distribution board is a component of an electricity supply system which divides an electrical power feed into subsidiary circuits, while providing a protective fuse or circuit breaker for each circuit, in a common enclosure...
s raised on poles several metres tall.
Sanitation
Sanitation
Sanitation is the hygienic means of promoting health through prevention of human contact with the hazards of wastes. Hazards can be either physical, microbiological, biological or chemical agents of disease. Wastes that can cause health problems are human and animal feces, solid wastes, domestic...
is poor owing to the shortage of safe water, due to burst pipes. Piped water rarely reaches the highest floors of apartment buildings. In most of the illegal buildings there is no water supply at all. The sewers in Stolipinovo are mostly dysfunctional and overflowing, forming puddles in the streets. Illegal buildings are not connected at all. Household waste is typically hurled from windows and balconies of apartments onto heaps on the ground below.
Inevitably, these problems caused a hepatitis type A
Hepatitis A
Hepatitis A is an acute infectious disease of the liver caused by the hepatitis A virus , an RNA virus, usually spread the fecal-oral route; transmitted person-to-person by ingestion of contaminated food or water or through direct contact with an infectious person...
epidemic in the summer of 2006 which affected at least 637 persons in Stolipinovo, and spread to other parts of the city, Sheker Mahala
Sheker Mahala
Sheker Mahala is the second biggest Roma ghetto in Plovdiv. Its population is 10 000. Only 2 000 of them identify themselves as Roma, the rest identify themselves as people of Turkish origin. The district is in the northwestern outskirts of the town....
in particular. As a result, RIOKOZ of the Ministry of Health completed a mass immunisation campaign of children in Plovdiv by the end of October 2006. Other emergency measures undertaken by the municipality included dismantlement of illegal kiosks that had lined the streets and disposal of refuse left uncollected for years.
Electricity debt
The nonpayment of the bills for household services leads to accumulation of a debt that amounts to 3 million EUR for electricity and water supply. Due to this reason, in 2002 the local electricity company /by that time state-owned/ began cutting off the electricity supply of all inhabitants of Stolipinovo. This “joint responsibility” was considered as illegal approach by the human rights organizations and led to spontaneous riots in Stolipinovo. After the situation was all set up, the neighbourhood was put on a regime – electricity supply was on for six hours at night. The state company also decided to place electricity meters in exterior boards that were fixed several meters above the ground – something that appears to be a practice in the neighbourhoods inhabited with Roma people in Bulgaria. On October 31, 2006 the District Court in PlovdivPlovdiv
Plovdiv is the second-largest city in Bulgaria after Sofia with a population of 338,153 inhabitants according to Census 2011. Plovdiv's history spans some 6,000 years, with traces of a Neolithic settlement dating to roughly 4000 BC; it is one of the oldest cities in Europe...
pronounced a decision, with which the electricity regime in Stolipinovo was proclaimed discriminatory.
The overcoming of this humanitarian and economic problem, which had been neglected for many years, was undertaken by EVN
EVN
EVN may refer to:* European VLBI Network, an array of European-centric radio telescopes.* Zvartnots International Airport, IATA airport code* Escape Velocity Nova, the third installment of the Escape Velocity computer game series....
Bulgaria – a subsidiary of the Austrian utility company, which in 2004 acquired the Electricity Distributing Companies in South Eastern Bulgaria and inherited the debts, the regime, the damaged electricity grid, and the problematic relations with the clients. Company’s experts prepared a complete technical project, a programme for public-private partnership and an information campaign, the implementation of which took almost a year. The electricity grid was entirely renovated, including the installation of new on-ground boards, which allows a visual control on the readings of the electricity meters on behalf of the clients.
The project paid attention also to activities for improvement of the supplier-client relations. The old payments were stretched out according to a socially bearable scheme. Within the work on the project a lot of families, who had previously been illegally joined to the grid, were separated as new subscribers in compliance with the legal requirements. On one hand this improved the relations with the clients, and on the other restored their faith in the company. EVN
EVN
EVN may refer to:* European VLBI Network, an array of European-centric radio telescopes.* Zvartnots International Airport, IATA airport code* Escape Velocity Nova, the third installment of the Escape Velocity computer game series....
appointed Roma people to consulting positions working in the neighbourhood. Their obligations are to consult the clients upon comprehending the readings of their electricity meters as well as to carry out information campaigns directed to energy efficiency. Company’s cash desks facilitating payments were opened in the neighbourhood.
As a result, since 2007 the Roma community in Stolipinovo has started receiving 24-hour electricity supply. About 3 million EUR has been invested in the entire replacement of 185 kilometers of electricity grid, renovation or construction of a total of 17 transformer stations, opening of 4 cash desks on the territory of the neighbourhood, joining 6 400 subscribers to the grid. Success has been achieved, which few believed in before: the collectability in the neighbourhood has been raised from 3% in 2006 to 85% after the fulfillment of the project, and the technological losses decreased from 40% to 5%. The success in Stolipinovo reassured the management of EVN
EVN
EVN may refer to:* European VLBI Network, an array of European-centric radio telescopes.* Zvartnots International Airport, IATA airport code* Escape Velocity Nova, the third installment of the Escape Velocity computer game series....
Bulgaria to apply the programme in other Roma-inhabited neighbourhoods on the territory of South Eastern Bulgaria and to ensure electricity supply according to all present-day standards.