Teodora Georgieva - F82034

Hristian Dossev
March 31, y

Business and Leadership

It’s a sad reflection on our society that something as basic as
drinking water is now a bottled, branded consumer product.

What’s water nowadays - a life source or another way of earning money?

We all know that water takes about 71% of the Earth’s surface and it is one of the primary

ingredients of our existence. We have constant access to water and we have taken it for

granted without realising that even a small water-pipe damage - restraining our access to

water is preventing us from most of our day-to-day activities.

Although we rely on water for our existence and as mentioned in the beginning of this essay -

water is everywhere - the access to water has been in a way limited by the government.

In article 18 (1) of the Constitution of Bulgaria it is exclusively stated that: “Underground

resources, the coastal beaches, national roads as well as water, forests and parks of national

significance, natural and archaeological reserves established by law are exclusive state

property.” This small paragraph listed on a piece of paper defines the faith of the natural

resource flowing from the ground.

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By grading water as state property this gives the state the power to trade water on concession.

This gives the renting party power of the source.

Let us take the famous mineral water of Hisar as an illustrator of my point of view.

Hisar is a small and popular Bulgarian resort town near Plovdiv with 22 mineral springs . The

town is founded thousands of years ago just because of these mineral springs and the belief

that the water coming from the ground is healing. Purely because of the water there, the town

has always been a very attractive destination for people with kidney, gall, urological,

gastrointestinal, liver and diseases of the musculoskeletal system, and also for people seeking

a nice relaxation SPA holiday. This type of exploitation of the water resource is in a way

understandable, but not exclusively legitimate. Some years ago the springs of Hisar were

accessible to everyone who wishes to take advantage of the resource at any point of time, but

nowadays the power of concession is limiting the access. Since the immense growth of SPA

centres in the town the “owners” of the springs have restrained people from access to the

water after 7 p.m. up to 6 a.m., because the water is re-directed to the numerous swimming

pools. This is one of the points I find as ridiculous. Another mind-blowing thing I saw is that

right next to the spring there is a shop actually selling the branded and bottled product which

is literally coming from 10 meters away.

I would not go in depth of analysing this phenomenon, but I would like to point out another

thought that I try to understand.

Why is the price of water so drastically different. Local water, water from the other side of

the country, imported water - the product is the same but the price is ridiculously different. Is

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it not in fact the same thing in a different bottle? Getting local water, let’s say ‘Gorna Banya'

costs about 0.60 lev for 500ml compared to the price of the French water ‘Perrier' that costs

about 1,80 for 330ml, sounds crazy, right?

The topic of this essay isn’t merely pointing out on the transformation of natural sources into

monetary outcomes, but it is also giving us the idea of how the morals and values of the

people have shifted.

Unfortunately the world is going crazy, obsessing over money and this is not different for

Bulgaria either. It is well known that we are in the top 10 poorest countries in Europe, and

our standards aren’t very high on a worldwide level either. People do not think about

tomorrow or the day after or even 5 years from now, they only think of how to survive today.

This is not only defined by the salary of each person, but also their beliefs and values. It

wouldn’t be a strange thing to see a person driving a car of the value of 1000 leva, but talking

on the latest iPhone model whose price starts from nearly double the price of the car. Today

Bulgarians think more about how they look in other peoples eyes rather than how they really

are. Coming back to the different brands of water, it would be considered as classy to drink

‘Perrier’ water in a club, rather than the normal water which is produced locally.

The culture and bringing up of the ‘new’ Bulgarians is highly influenced by the west. We

would like to act like them, but nobody cares about thinking like them. The mindset is what

makes the difference. When talking about mindset I remember a friend of mine telling me a

story which he heard by one of his professors:

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A couple of Bulgarians were invited to a congress in Denmark. After the congress finished

the head of the congress, a very rich Danish lady invited the Bulgarian group for dinner in her

own house. After they have finished their meals the Bulgarians (as we are well known for our

responsiveness) offered to wash the dishes. The Danish lady firstly refused the help, but the

Bulgarians were very insistent. After she agreed the two Bulgarian women went to the sink

and turned the tap on. As the high stream of water was pouring on the dishes the Danish lady

politely went to the kitchen, turned the tap off and said she changed her mind and asked the

Bulgarians to leave the dishes to her.

After my friend told me this story I started thinking what did the reaction of this lady meant?

Why did she change her mind on the help offered by the Bulgarians?

In my opinion this is a typical example of her (and most probably the national) mentality and

her responsible approach to the usage of the natural resources. Responsible and thoughtful

usage of the resources would save them for a longer period, because without them our planet

wouldn’t survive for a long time and with the planet we will be gone too.

The truth is that the key to success is not to show off or to be the wealthiest, which

unfortunately is encountered amongst Bulgaria, it is the sound management of resources and

finances. Only as much and whenever needed!

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