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Residents of flood-affected areas in the Central Bosnian Canton are also waiting for government and international help. The damage in the three affected municipalities was estimated at 100 million marks. The winter temporarily covered all the damage, but not the fact that they are waiting 3 months for the reconstruction of the homes. Due to the incompetence of the authorities or administrative procedures, the road to help and reach them is certainly long, he writes Federal Television.
The heavy rain that fell on the Vranica mountain area on the fourth of October caused enormous material damage in the SBK area, especially in Fojnica. They say that everything started from the town of Dusina. Stjepan Prajo was at work, and his wife and daughter stayed at home. He had no idea that it would be his last day with his wife, when the water flooded their home in just a few minutes. On that fateful morning, Stjepan lost his job, his house and his wife, whose life was swept away by the torrent before the eyes of their daughter Ilena. Today, he lives with his brother in one room, and his daughter Ilena, housed in the Bakovići Institution, recalls through tears the horrors she survived: “In those moments, the water was already up to her shoulders. Then it broke through the window, that mud, those trees, the logs. And I lost my mom, she sank before my eyes.”
– My daughter was there for 6-7 hours, she was holding on to something, and here my wife was in the mud. It was there that the Red Cross and Civil Protection took her out – says Stjepan.
House renovation
By mobilizing their resources, the municipal authorities of Fojnica managed to provide electricity, drinking water, tame the river Željeznica, and establish macadam communication towards Dusina. And that’s all. The promised assistance of the Federal Ministry of Tourism and the Environment for the removal of the landfill from Gojević has not yet been fulfilled, claims the municipal mayor Sabahudin Klisura (SDA). Concrete help from higher levels of government was not enough, emphasize the locals who witnessed the disaster and rebuilt their homes themselves, like Ilija Petrović, who escaped to the attic to save himself and his parrot in the face of the oncoming torrent: . I took my parrot, took his food to the attic above.
– I would most like them to rebuild my house, and if they can’t rebuild it, to give me help, then I would. That would be my greatest wish – says Stjepan Prajo.
Neither the speed of the reaction nor the estimated amount of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina – one million eight hundred and thirty thousand KM – is not satisfied either by the mayor of Klisura: “I can say that I am not satisfied.” I know the system, I know how things work. Implement any funds you receive – we need 2-3 months. Criteria must be made – how, in what way. This is where people’s dissatisfaction will begin.”
In the city area of Kiseljak, along with the flooding of a large number of basements and business premises, the floods caused damage to the road infrastructure and bridges along the rivers Fojnica and Lepenica. According to the adopted report of the municipal commission at the last session of the Municipal Council, the total damage amounts to about 18 million marks. With the help of the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, the Red Cross, the Government of SBK and the decision of the Council of Ministers on the distribution of international aid to Kiseljak Municipality – one million seven hundred and sixteen thousand KM, the local community says that they are not dissatisfied.
– Looking at the amount of damage and what we will provide as a form of aid, if we are able to provide funds for 20% or more of that amount compared to what was estimated – we must not be overly dissatisfied – says the mayor Mladen Mišurić Ramljak (HDZ BiH ).
Rehabilitation of endangered areas
Representatives of the municipal authorities of Kreševo claim that they have directed all their resources to the rehabilitation of endangered areas, of which the town of Deževica suffered the worst. With their own funds, they repaired most of the damage, which they estimate to be around 26 million marks. They are satisfied with the help so far, the renovation is yet to come.
“After the floods, we are satisfied, really. The higher levels of government at that moment did what they could do. In the first days after the floods, what is most important, we managed to reach all the people. We didn’t have human victims, so we can’t complain,” says the mayor of Kreševo, Boris Matić (HDZ BiH).
The citizens of these three municipalities will still have to wait for the allocated funds for international aid to the flooded areas. Due to administrative procedures, the path of help to them is long. Winter temporarily covered all the damage caused by unprecedented catastrophic floods in SBK, which was estimated at around 100 million marks.
