The number of educational institutions (kindergartens and schools) to be rehabilitated by the EU Floods Recovery Programme has been increased from the initially planned 90 to 109, hence allowing more children, teachers and parents to benefit from rehabilitated learning facilities across the flood-affected areas in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
During the implementation phase of the Programme, it became evident that more educational facilities than originally anticipated were in need of post-flood rehabilitation to ensure safe and modern learning facilities. The European Union is thus extending its rehabilitation support to additional educational institutions. The new institutions benefiting from the expanded EU assistance are located in the municipalities of Banja Luka, Čelinac, Derventa, Maglaj, Olovo, Srbac and Zenica.
These additional activities by the EU Flood Recovery Programme will be implemented within the existing Programme budget, thanks to internal adjustments and savings made to date in the implementation of the Programme. As of today, the Programme has already completed rehabilitation works in 72 educational facilities (65 schools and 7 kindergartens). Currently works are ongoing in 28 educational facilities, and works in 9 educational facilities are due to start soon upon finalisation of procurement processes. Weather permitting, it is expected that the rehabilitation works in all 109 educational facilities receiving EU’s support will be completed by May 2015.
Furthermore, the number of communal infrastructure projects financed by the EU Programme has been increased from 100 to 130. These projects comprise rehabilitation works on local roads and bridges as well as local water supply and sanitation systems. The projects will be implemented particularly in rural and peripheral parts of flood-affected municipalities and they will increase the number of people who benefit from the EU’s post-flood assistance, by securing better transportation access to remote flood-affected communities and improving water and sanitation services which have been hampered by flood damages.
Rehabilitation works on 38 communal infrastructure objects (20 bridges, 12 roads and 6 water supply and sanitation systems) have already been completed and works on 41 objects are currently ongoing. The works will be completed by October 2015 when the Programme ends.
