The Head of Cooperation at the EU Delegation to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Melvin Asin, and the Mayor of Milići, Živojin Jurošević, today officially opened a reconstructed bridge over the Jadar River in Dubnički Most in Milići.
The bridge, which links some 60 households with approximately 200 inhabitants in the Dubnički Most settlement and neighbouring Pakovići village with the rest of the Milići Municipality, was completely destroyed in the May 2014 floods.
As the old bridge did not allow for sufficient flow of the Jadar river, the new bridge was built 5 metres longer and 2 metres higher than the old bridge, thereby ensuring long-term durability of the structure. Total contract value for the construction of the bridge was 55,545 EUR, out of which EU investment comprised 40,245. The rest of the reconstruction costs were provided by the Municipality.
On the occasion of officially opening the bridge, Melvin Asin said: “The bridge which we are officially opening today does not only represent the EU’s effort to repair damaged and destroyed infrastructure in flood-affected communities and help people return to normal life – but it also represents what the EU is about, connecting and uniting people in friendships and partnerships. We hope that our support for the reconstruction of this bridge will benefit the daily lives here; by re-establishing connectivity between communities, providing access to jobs and vital services, and access for children to schools, and for farmers to markets.”
Mr. Asin also used the opportunity to underline that one year after the devastating floods in BiH, the EU Floods Recovery Programme has achieved a series of tangible results across the flood-affected areas in BiH: public facilities to have been rehabilitated to enable restoration of vital public services; homes have been rehabilitated for vulnerable people to enable them to return; financial support has been provided to small and medium-sized enterprises to preserve precious jobs; roads, bridges and water systems serving local communities have been repaired; and agricultural producers whose livelihoods have been endangered by the floods will receive financial support shortly.
Mayor Jurošević said “On behalf of the Milići Municipality citizens, I would like to thank the EU Delegation to Bosnia and Herzegovina for being among the first to establish its own Programme which provided support in the recovery of affected areas after the floods. Thanks to their assistance and understanding, we had the privilege to use these funds when times were the most difficult for us, when the floods took away the old, almost improvised, bridge, which was connecting almost 60 households with the main road.”
The total investment under the EU Floods Recovery Programme in the Milići Municipality amounts to some 50,000 EUR. The other EU-financed works in the Municipality include construction of a retaining wall and local road Dubnički Most-Rajići-Buljevići in the total amount of 9.693 EUR, which was completed in November 2014.
The EU Floods Recovery Programme was launched to restore normal living conditions in local communities and ensure that the assistance reaches the most vulnerable ones in the aftermath of floods in May 2014. Financial aid is used for rehabilitation of the buildings for public services, infrastructure, housing units for the most vulnerable people and for socio-economic recovery of local communities.
The value of the overall Programme is 43.52 million, out of which 42.24 million is provided by the European Union. This assistance is a part of the funds that the European Union pledged at the donor conference in Brussels in July 2014.
The Programme is implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in cooperation with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
For more information visit the EU Floods Recovery Programme feature page and EU Floods Recovery Programme Facebook page
