Massimo Mina, Head of Operations for Social Development, Civil Society and Cross-Border Cooperation at the EU Delegation to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Dževad Mujkić, Mayor of Lukavac, officially opened a reconstructed bridge over the Bukovica River today, thereby reconnecting the local communities of Tumare and Panjik in the Lukavac Municipality.
The bridge, which is being used by around 100 households daily, was heavily damaged in the May 2014 floods and reconstructed by the EU Floods Recovery Programme. The EU-financed works on the site also included improving the regulation of the Bukovica River flow to protect the reconstructed bridge from future flooding. The total EU investment on the reconstruction of the bridge, which is 12.40m long and 4.5m wide, comprised 28,200 EUR (55,160 KM).
“Back in 1933, Ivo Andrić described bridges in his short novel and I can hardly imagine better words to explain their importance: ‘My thoughts always find bridges, which are symbols of the eternal and never satisfied wish of the man to connect, bring peace and unite everything that appears in front of our spirit – to prevent divisions, contrasts and separations,” said Massimo Mina. “The reconstruction of this bridge represents well what the EU Floods Recovery Programme is all about – helping communities in flood-affected areas to return to normal life by restoring vital services to the citizens. Local transport infrastructure is a key part of these services and through our financial support our objective is to reestablish connectivity in communities for local residents to access schools and work places– just as we have done here in Tumare and Panjik”,.
“On behalf of Lukavac Municipality citizens, I would like to thank the EU representatives in Bosnia and Herzegovina for all the help they provided, particularly for the recovery support after the floods. Across the Lukavac Municipality, we suffered great damages caused by floods and landslides, and I would particularly like to express our gratitude for the reconstruction of the bridge in Tumare, which is being mostly used by returnees and children when going to school in Panjik,” said Dževad Mujkić.
The projected EU investment in the Lukavac Municipality under the EU Floods Recovery Programme is approximately 700,000 EUR (1.37 million KM), and includes reconstruction of 3 bridges, provision of equipment and furniture for 4 flood-affected schools, economic recovery grants to 4 small and medium-sized enterprises for retention of nearly120 jobs, assistance to agricultural producers and rehabilitation of around 80 houses for the most vulnerable population.
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, please contact:
UNDP’s Communications Office: 033 293 400
Communications Office of the EU Delegation to BiH: 033 254 773
