Thousands Still in Temporary Shelters After Bosnia Floods

Bosnia’s Deputy Security Minister Mladen Cavar told Balkan Insight that although the situation had improved since the floods hit Bosnia in mid-May, the process of reconstruction and rehousing those displaced by the disaster would take much longer.

“We have passed from a state of emergency to a state of repairing. But according to the latest data there are still around 4,000 people in collective centres,” Cavar said.

He said that around 100,000 buildings were destroyed in the floods, of which some 60,000 to 70,000 were people’s homes. 

“There are many people repairing and cleaning out their houses and staying with family or neighbours, but the process of reconstruction will take years,” he said.

Around 40 collective centres that gave people temporary shelter are still operating, Cavar added.

But hundreds of people in the Zenica-Doboj canton whose homes were destroyed now have no place to live.

The Zenica-Doboj cantonal government told Balkan Insight that it was waiting for reports from geologists and construction experts to find out whether some villages are safe enough for people to return.

“The canton is trying to help the people as much as we can,” said cantonal spokesperson Jasna Ahmetspahic.

“Of course, we will ask for help from the Federation and from the state level [government]. But people cannot return home until official reports confirm it is safe,” she said.

Ahmetspahic added that people whose houses had been destroyed or pronounced unsafe due to landslides would eventually be helped with money to build alternative accommodation elsewhere.

“We will see that those alternatives are near the original places where the people came from,” she said.

The...