The completion of 111 housing units rehabilitated through the emergency housing assistance component of the EU Floods Recovery Programme was marked on November 11.

Thanks to EU funds, 30 families from Banja Luka, 25 from Bijeljina, 21 from Doboj, 15 from Orašje, eight from Živinice, seven from Maglaj, three from Tuzla, and one from both Lopare and Šamac have got their homes back.

This first phase of the emergency housing assistance component focuses on the most vulnerable households in the flood-affected areas, providing assistance to, among others, senior citizens, families living below the poverty line and persons with disabilities. The rehabilitation works were finalised within four weeks since their initiation, and included repairing roofs and facades, refurbishing floors and walls as well as replacing indoor and outdoor carpentries.

“The rehabilitation works under the first phase currently continue on 328 housing units and the selection of further 396 units is underway in close cooperation with the relevant local authorities. We are increasing the number of housing units to be completed by the end of this year – we initially planned to cover 650 housing units but this figure now stands at 1,000,” said Andy McGuffie, Spokesperson of the EU Delegation to BiH and EU Special Representative Office. The same week also marks the completion of the selection process of additional 1,270 beneficiaries for housing rehabilitation assistance under the first public call, focusing on the municipalities of Bijeljina, Šamac, Doboj, Maglaj, Orašje, Odžak, Brčko District and Domaljevac.

Furthermore, the second public call to select another 1,079 beneficiaries has been launched. “The second public call for housing rehabilitation support was released on 29 October 2014. All those eligible in the municipalities of Banja Luka, Laktaši, Lukavac, Prijedor, Modriča, Sanski Most, Srebrenik, Tuzla, Zenica, Žepče and Živinice are encouraged to apply. Information on how to apply along with the application criteria is available on the EU Delegation and the UNDP websites, as well as through the media,” explained Edis Arifagić, the UNDP Programme Manager for the EU Floods Recovery Programme.

Overall, the EU Floods Recovery Programme aims to rehabilitate a total of 4,000 housing units damaged in the floods and thus directly assist around 14,000 people to return home. “A key priority for the EU Floods Recovery Programme is that our assistance reaches those who need it most. UNDP, as our implementing partner, continues to closely cooperate with the relevant local authorities when selecting the beneficiaries, while ensuring transparency and full adherence to the selection criteria,” concluded McGuffie.

The EU Floods Recovery Programme: The Programme was launched to restore normal living conditions in local communities and ensure that the aid reaches the most vulnerable in the aftermath of floods in May. Funds will be used to restore public services and infrastructure, reconstruct housing units for the most vulnerable, and for social and economic recovery of local communities. The value of the overall programme was 43.52 million, of which 42.24 million was provided by the European Union. The programme is being implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), 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