K. Bojadgieva, S. Dipchikova, A. Benderev, J. Koseva: BALNEOLOGY IN BULGARIA Chapter 1.3 THERMAL WATERS AND BALNEOLOGY IN BULGARIA K.Bojadgieva1, S.Dipchikova2, A.Benderev3 and J.Koseva2 1-Oil and Gas Production and Exploration, Ltd, 23 Sitnjakovo blvd., 1505 Sofia 2-Specialized hospital for physiotherapy and rehabilitation, 2B Ovcha kupel,1608 Sofia 3-Geological Institute, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bl.24, G.Bonchev str.,1113 Sofia INTRODUCTION seases are treated using scientific methods and programs, confirmed by a long-term Bulgaria has a variety of mineral waters o professional experience. with temperatures up to 100 C. Thermal wa- The economical and social changes in ters with high alkalinity and low level of our country during the transition period to- TDS are predominant. The country is situa- wards the free market economy led to a dra- ted at the southern part of the Balkan Penin- stic decrease in the governmental subsidies sula and is an heir of ancient civilizations. for balneology, to a deterioration of some of There are extremely good bio-climatic the resorts and even to a closure of some of resources which combined with the existing them. The Bulgarian spas are under the Mi- ancient Mediterranean traditions in thermal nistry of Health governance and their spon- water use, provide an have been based for soring, management and exploitation is go- the balneological development in the coun- ing to be done according to the new laws try. A number of big spa resorts have deve- and regulations in the country. loped on places of old Thracian or Roman In most of Bulgarian spas the thermal residential areas, like: Sandanski, Kjusten- waters are used partially and ineffectively. dil, Hisarja, Velingrad, Sapareva banja, etc. This is especially in the case of high tem- Even the capital city of Bulgaria, Sofia, has perature reservoirs (T>70oC), where the wa- been established close to thermal springs of o o ter is left in open tanks to cool down to the temperature interval of 20 C-50 C by Thra- desired temperature or is mixed with ex- cian tribes in third century BC. pensive cold tap water. In this way, the wa- The most active development of our spa ter mineral composition has been changed system is in the time period of 1970-1980. and its healing agents have been diminished. Until 1990 about 40 resorts of local and na- At the same time the buildings are heated tional significance were actively operating with conventional fossil fuel boilers usually in Bulgaria. In these spas a wide range of di- coal or oil. This gives a situation of reduced ______________________________________________________________________________________ International Workshop on BALNEOLOGY AND WATER TOURIST CENTERS efficiency of the mineral application, wasted 35 energy and locally polluted environment. 30 Up until the 1980 thermal water was on- ly partially used for health and recreational 25 bathing, washing, swimming pools, green- 20 houses, bottling of potable water and soft 15 drinks production, derivatives, etc. 10 After the 1980s modern systems for % of the total flow rate 5 space heating, air conditioning and ventilati- 0 on, indoor and outdoor swimming pools 20-30 30-40 40-50 50-60 60-70 70-80 >80 have been constructed. Most of the geother- temperature intervals, deg C mal stations have been build on reservoirs of low temperature (40oC-60oC) which are pre- Fig. 1.Flow rate distribution (in %) for tem- vailing in our country. These systems are in- perature intervals direct ones and are assisted by plate heat ex- changers and heat pumps. The total ins- About 70% of the thermal waters are tallled capacity of the geothermal systems in slightly mineralized with fluoride concen- Bulgaria is 95.35 MWt. tration ranging from 0.1 to 17mg/l, vari-ous The construction of new cascade geo- metasilicic acid concentration (up to thermal systems at these sites will improve 230mg/l) and of mostly low alkalinity. In considerably the efficiency of the medical comparison to most of the European mineral treatment, improve the local air quality and waters, the Bulgarian ones have a lot of ad- significantly reduce the use of fossil fuels. vantages: low TDS close to the optimal one, typical for the potable water, high purity 1. CONDITIONS FOR SPA DEVE- level especially in terms of anthropological LOPMENT IN BULGARIA pollution, microbiolo-gical purity and a va- riety of water types (Vladeva, L., Kara- Bulgaria is located on 111 000 sq km kolev,D.1996). and there is an extraordinary combination of Besides using mineral waters in spa cen- factors providing perfect conditions for tour- ters, in most of the sites they flow out of the ism, healing and recreation. The abundance taps. This allows a free of charge and mas- of thermal waters, their variety and purity, sive water use for drinking and disease pre- the moderate to transcontinental climate and vention. In the capital city area only, there the Mediterranean influence as well as the are six mineral water springs provided with national traditions in thermal water healing many built fountains. in Bulgaria, are prerequisites for effective and complete use of our natural resources. 1.2. Climate Considering the small area of the coun- 1.1. Thermal waters try, its climate is very diverse: from moder- The mineral waters are one of the most ate to transcontinental with Mediterranean precious natural resources in Bulgaria. There influence from south and local Black Sea in- are more than 500 hydrothermal sources fluence from east. The spa centers in Bul- with a total flow rate of 3000 l/s, having dif- garia are usually placed in mountain tourist ferent temperature and mineral composi- resorts and some are at the seaside. The al- tion. Almost all of them are thermal as the titude varies in a wide range (from the sea temperature varies in a wide range from level up to 800 m) and this satisfies the spe- 20oC to 100oC. About 33 % of the total dis- cific needs of the patients and provides good covered flow rate is of temperature between conditions for treatment. In most of the 20oC-30oC, and 43% - between 40oC-60oC healing centers there are all year round ac- (Petrov et al.,1998), Fig.1. tivities: disease prevention, treatment and rehabilitation. ______________________________________________________________________________________ K. Bojadgieva, S. Dipchikova, A. Benderev, J. Koseva: BALNEOLOGY IN BULGARIA 1.3. Balneological tradition other medications), irrigation, etc. This In our biggest spa centers there are data treatment is combined with other physio- about using thermal waters both for healing therapeutic or rehabilitation procedures, sun and heating in the Roman baths in I-IV baths etc. century AC. The remains as well as the lit- The wide spread thermal waters therapy erature records show that these baths were allows using an outpatient treatment that also social centers. keeps the patients’ every day routine un- Until 1990 all spa centers were included changed: one goes to work and comes for in the health care system and got regularly treatment during suitable day hours. There governmental subsidies. At the moment, are a lot of beaches created around indoor privatization and reconstruction processes and outdoor geothermal pools, and this im- are taking place in all of these centers. proves the prophylactics of many diseases. Highly experienced specialists are work- ing in our spas. They offer treatment of wide 2. SPA CENTERS IN BULGARIA range malfunctions and diseases such as: chronic respiratory mal-functions, locomo- The spa centers in Bulgaria are of local tory system problems; peripheral nervous and national significance and most of them system diseases; digestive system, gyneco- are situated in South Bulgaria, Fig.2. logical and kidney diseases; chronic intoxi- Seven national resorts are presented in cation problems, etc. (Karakolev,D.1984). more details. They have been selected for The treatment includes the use of mineral several reasons: well-developed base for water drinking in prescribed doses depend- treatment, big tourist centers and good pros- ing on its composition. Water is used for pects for further development under the new healing baths in tubes, showers, pools, as free market policy in the country. well as for inhalation (mixed with herbs or Fig 2. Location map of spas of national significance - ∗ n (∗- not discussed in the paper) ______________________________________________________________________________________ K. Bojadgieva, S. Dipchikova, A. Benderev, J. Koseva: BALNEOLOGY IN BULGARIA the town and has been in operation since1966. • Chemical composition Most of the thermal waters in the region are slightly mineralized and are of wide temperature range. The TDS values are within 0.276 to 0.920 g/l. The waters are hydrocarbonic-sulphate-sodium or only hy- drocarbonic-sodium ones. The mineral water tests done in Kjus- tendil region show a constant physical- Fig.3 Thermal bath (built in 1912) chemical water composition, and stable characteristics in terms of mineral content. An additional advantage is that this water covers the existing European sanitary and chemical criteria for level of purity. There is a big curative peat deposit in the vicinity of the spa rich in biologically active substances and humid acids. The combination of different natural factors in one and the same region creates exclusive opportunities for versatile, complete and wide application of all of them. • Healing indicators The climate in Kjustendil is transcon- tinental with a Mediterranean influence. The summer there is long and warm, the winter Fig.4. A sanatorium, heated with is mild and short, and autumn is long and warm. The mean annual air temperature is geothermal energy +10.9oC, the mean January one is (-0.6oC), o THE TOWN OF KJUSTENDIL and the mean July temperature is +21. 6C. The presence of hydrogene sulphide, The town of Kjustendil (50 000 resi- hydrosulphide and sulphide in the mineral dents) (fig.2) is built on the place of the fa- water in Kjustendil and Sapareva Banja made them very useful in bones-joints mous ancient Roman town of Poutalia.