EUR 20 million needed for embankment repair

BELGRADE - Around EUR 20 million is needed for the repair of embankments after the recent catastrophic floods, acting Director of the Republic Water Directorate Miodrag Pjescic said on Tuesday.

The repair of embankments is the top priority because ten times lower rainfall than that which caused the catastrophic floods in mid-May could cause river flooding, Pjescic said at the session of the Serbian parliament Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management Committee.

Around 200 break points on embankments have been registered in the area of the Sabac and Kolubara Districts, in municipalities of Obrenovac and Lazarevac, and the biggest among these are located on the bank of the Kolubara River, including two break points stretching some 300 metres each, he said.

The embankment on the Sava River at Obrenovac was broken by the flooding rivers Tamnava and Kolubara in the Obrenovac zone, he said.

The flood-defence system in the area has been completely ruined and the repair costs on the territory under the charge of public enterprise Srbija Vode add up to RSD 1.527 million, Pjescic said.

In the Belgrade territory, that is the part of the city controlled by public enterprise Beogradvode, the repair costs add up to RSD 843 million, so the total repair costs adds up to some EUR 20 million, he said.

Pjescic noted that the water directorate allocated RSD 125 million from its own revenues by means of a review for the purposes of a repair of embankments on the Sava River in the Macva District and RSD 8 million more were set aside for the Beogradvode zone.

The damage costs have been reported to the committee for removal of consequences of natural disasters, he said.

The works on the embankment...