VOLUNTEERS ARE CLEANING DANUBE ISLANDS NEAR BULGARIA’S ROUSSE

Volunteers from the North Bulgarian city of Rousse have launched a campaign to clean litter from islands in the Bulgarian stretch of the river Danube.

Near the city of Rousse, there are four islands – Lyulyaka, Batin, Aleko and Mishka. Their shores are littered with debris that the river carries downstream from all the countries though which it passes.

Environmental specialists from Rousse are planning to conduct a cleanup in the next several weekends. They have already made a study on the type of the litter. Vessela Mihova, a representative of “Prista” Tourist Association says that 80% of the litter are plastic bottles, 3% are nylon bags.

The volunteers will get to the islands on motor boats and kayaks. They will load the litter in bags and will transport them to the river bank. Especially for the cleanup campaign, a raft was made in the Bulgarian town of Tutrakan, which will have the capacity to transport larger amounts of trash.

The volunteers say such a cleanup has not been conducted so far. The first cleanup will take place on 27th and 28th of June so that at least one of the islands will celebrate the International Danube Day, 29th of June, in good form.