Bulgarian villager Rumyana Tsoneva keeps opening the tap in her yard in Gorna Studena near the Danube -- and keeps finding it dry.

Bulgaria, the EU’s poorest country, has decades-old pipes – some laid before World War II – while water theft and poor resource management amplify the consequences of climate change.

“Every other drop is lost before reaching the tap,” said Emil Gachev, a researcher at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

In mid-July, water interruptions affected more than 156,000 people in the country of 6.4 million, which ranks worst in the EU for losses in supply networks.