Bosnia, Serbia to Evaluate Post-Flood Reconstruction

The Bosnian and Serbian authorities have started preparations for a follow-up donors' conference which will be held in Sarajevo on September 28, to look into what was has been achieved so far in terms of reconstruction after the catastrophic floods in May 2014.

The conference will be used to evaluate the reconstruction efforts launched by Bosnian and Serbian officials as well as international organisations and donor countries, after unpredicted rainfall caused floods which resulted in the loss of almost 60 lives and caused damage worth billions of euros.

The international community reacted quickly and organised a donors' conference in Brussels in July last year, where representatives of 23 international organizations and 60 nations pledged to give 995 million euro to Serbia and 809 million euro to Bosnia to aid their recovery.

Out of the pledged donations, around 100 million euro has already been distributed in Serbia and 200 million euro in Bosnia, officials have said.

Edis Arifagic, programme manager of the UNDP flood recovery programme in Bosnia and Herzegovina, said that one of the reasons for having the follow-up conference was to have an overview of what has been done in the year since the floods and to look into reconstruction as well as prevention efforts in future.

"There is still a lot to be done. Our conservative estimate is that we are going to need some three to five years to bring back the state to what it was before the floods," Arifagic told BIRN.

He particularly underlined the importance of flood prevention in Bosnia.

"This issue has to be actualised because if something floods us again in the spring, or in autumn, chances are low that we would succeed in getting any kind of donor money...