Sabac still guards defense walls on River Sava

SABAC - The emergency headquarters in the city of Sabac, western Serbia, said in a release Saturday that they will continue with activities to preserve the defense walls on the Sava River and clean up areas where flood waters have receded.

The Serbian government appointed Boban Birmancevic as new commander of the Sabac emergency headquarters yesterday. Birmancevic is a member of the Serbian parliament and up to yesterday, he had been deputy commander of the headquarters.

General Ljubisa Dikovic, who served as the commander of the Sabac emergency headquarters until last night, returned to his regular duties as chief of the General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces, the headquarters said in the release.

The tough job in Sabac, a town of about 55,000 inhabitants, where the Sava reached a historic high level of 6.60 meters a week ago, involves all the available teams of the city’s Institute of Public Health, Health Center, public utility enterprises and inspection service.

The fire and rescue teams, assisted by special teams from Russia, Belarus, France and Austria, are pumping water out of the flooded areas, but it is going pretty slow as water levels are still very high and the number of pumps is insufficient.

According to the Republic Hydrometeorological Service of Serbia, the current water level on the Sava in Sabac is 5.81 m.

The headquarters’ release said that the United Nations Development Programme has announced a donation of pumps and when they arrive, they whole job will speed up considerably.

Classes in all primary and secondary schools in Sabac will start on Monday, while kindergartens will need more time to re-admit the children.

The emergency headquarters has...

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