Fourteen months after the catastrophic floods, many residents of Donja Jablanica are still living in temporary accommodation, while the number of those who have managed to rebuild their homes is very small. However, in addition to the slow reconstruction, justice is still delayed. The key question expected from the investigation is whether the tragedy was caused exclusively by a natural disaster or whether it was worsened by the operation of a quarry on the hill above the settlement.
In Donja Jablanica, only the first, more serious traces of reconstruction are beginning to appear. Yet sadness and disappointment still prevail among residents, especially those who lost their homes in the catastrophic floods 14 months ago.
“No one asks about us, no one asks whether I am a social case. Four members of my household live on a 600 BAM minimum pension. What else can I be but disappointed,” says Adil Begovic, Donja Jablanica.
“I appeal to good people who can help to just deliver us a little food; we have no food, we have no clothes. There are four of us here in the camp,” says Jasmin Sasic, village of Zlate.
Those whose houses were completely destroyed in the floods are still waiting for the completion of homes in the new settlement of Rogici. However, for some of them, the wait has become too long. Adisa and her husband decided to place a residential container on their own plot, where their house was completely destroyed in the floods. She tells us that she has almost lost hope of receiving the keys to a new house soon, because the reconstruction is moving too slowly.
“Believe me, it’s too slow. When I see the houses down there, I see how everything is being done so slowly. So much money arrived for us, for Donja Jablanica – where did it go, where is it going, I have no idea,” says Adisa Maslo, Donja Jablanica.
The words of the Mayor of the Municipality of Jablanica bring hope. As he told us, they received a promise from the main investor that 16 houses in the Rogici settlement should be completed in the spring, and for the remaining four houses, all preparatory actions have been completed, and the spatial planning documentation adjusted so that construction can also begin on them.
“In the settlement of Zlate, work is beginning on three residential buildings and those remaining that were previously resolved, so we are coming to some 35 buildings that we had to resolve for our fellow citizens who were left without their homes,” says Emir Muratovic, Mayor of the Municipality of Jablanica.
The Government of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton (HNC) has also allocated funds several times for the reconstruction of local roads and houses. According to the Prime Minister, the problem is no longer funding but, she added, the lack of operational capacity as well as the public procurement process, which is holding everything back. Although the results are not as expected, she emphasizes that they are encouraged by the fact that reconstruction work is ongoing.
“From the information I have, and I am in continuous communication with mayors and municipal heads, that is, with the cities of Konjic and Jablanica, reconstruction is progressing, following its course, and in the end, the affected people will receive the homes they deserve,” says Marija Buhac, Prime Minister of the HNC.
The unprecedented tragedy in Donja Jablanica still has no final outcome in the HNC Prosecutor’s Office. In the letter we sent to the Prosecutor’s Office, asking when concrete progress can be expected in the ‘Jablanica’ case, we received no reply. Let us recall that the Prosecutor’s Office of the HNC has completed investigative actions in the “Jablanica” case, which involves one company and four individuals. Although media reports in recent days have stated that the case would fall under the jurisdiction of the Special Department of the Federal Prosecutor’s Office for the fight against corruption and organized crime, this institution confirmed to us that this will not happen.
