The Chairman of the BiH Presidency Bakir Izetbegović and Minister of Defense of BiH Zekerijah Osmić visited Maglaj municipality to see the dynamic of restoration in this city. In addition, they visited elementary school “Maglaj” and sports hall “Pobjeda”, the two facilities that were completely destroyed in floods.
They assessed the city is being restored and that it looks much better than 70 days ago when floods hit it, where the water level reached more than 2 meters, and now life is slowly returning to this city.
Around 1.500 flats and houses, many business facilities and private companies were destroyed.
Izetbegović stated after visiting these facilities that around 90% of funds have already been secured for restoration of public facilities, but more funds need to be secured for flats and houses.
”It is especially important to secure funds for houses that were damaged or destroyed by landslides, because repair costs are high and that should be the focus and we need to work daily on finding new funds for restoration”, said Izetbegović.
He underlined that winter is approaching and that they need to do everything so people are ready for it.
Minister Osmić said that Maglaj is a well-organized local community which does most of the work on its own, but higher levels of authority need to engage and he added that Armed Forces of BiH are ready to continue helping the population.
”During May floods Armed Forces of BiH did extraordinary work and everyone commended their work. I was proud today. We must have Armed Forces in BiH that are structured to primarily help the population and I believe we will find political strength to make that happen”, emphasized Osmić.
He added that members of Armed Forces of BiH are now finishing repairs on facilities, bridges and roads that began after the May floods.
Municipal Mayor of Maglaj Mehmed Mustabašić stated it would be good to restore sports hall by October so youth of Maglaj would have a place to train and spend their time.
He emphasized that new landslides were triggered in this-week’s floods, which there are around 450 in this municipality at the moment, and Donji Bradići is completely cut off today and population there are left without electricity and water and are impossible to reach.
”Floods took several bridges in Jablanica and Bijela Ploča and these local communities have been flooded four times since May. Unfortunately, state and Federation institutions are late with construction of flats which is why we are under great pressure by the citizens and we have no indications how that will be solved”, added Mustabašić.
Nearly 2.000 residents of Maglaj are not living in their own homes. There is around 70 million BAM of damage on public institutions and housing facilities, and around 30 million BAM of damage in private sector (small and medium companies), whereas Natron company suffered from 20 to 30 million BAM of damage.
(Source: Fena)
