About 30 percent of Serbia situated in landslide zones

BELGRADE - The sudden melting of snow and heavy rainfall have caused rivers to overflow, triggering a large number of landslides in several locations in southern Serbia, and the vice president of the Serbian Chamber of Civil Engineers Goran Rodic says that as much as 30 percent of the country's territory is under threat from active and passive landslides.

Active and passive landslide zones total around 25,000 square kilometres in Serbia, and there are 35,000 of them, including as many as 2,000 in Belgrade, Rodic told Tanjug.

"In Belgrade, there are landslide zones on the Mirijevo plateau and at Lisicji potok, Kanarevo brdo, Miljakovac, on the stretch towards Umka and Obrenovac and in many other places," Rodic said.

Landslide zones are a latent threat, and climate change - which has become evident in Serbia, too - triggers passive landslides, which can inflict major damage to infrastructure and residential buildings in rural areas, as well as in cities, Rodic warned.

Due to all this, significant efforts must be made to repair landslide zones in Serbia and conduct detailed geomechanical examinations, he said.

Some estimates suggest that Serbia has the highest number of landslide zones in Europe, and one of the largest on the continent, a location known as Duboka, is situated between Umka and Obrenovac.

Photo Tanjug Video (archive)