The Bulgarians know that “there is no mountain higher than Vitosha, there is no river deeper than Iskar”
However, on May 1, 1961, Todor Zhivkov announced that boats would be plying the Pancharevo-Pavlovo waterway! So the happy navigation of flatlands of Sofia was never achieved due to unfinished excavation works and lack of water. However, five years later, on May 1, 1966, the dams of the tailings pond at the southern end of Zgorigrad, serving Plakalnitsa mines, collapsed. Nearly half a million cubic metres of water, mud, and heavy metals and cyanides sludge flooded Zgorigrad and the centre of Vratsa. The death toll from the flooding exceeded 600, more than 2,000 were injured, and about 170 houses were destroyed…
Do you really know how many families were affected by this May Day tragedy? Do you know where Zgorigrad is? Did anyone ask for a minute of silence on May 1? Here is a historical event that should not have happened – and since we do not know about it, it did not happen!
