I was in Serbia early last week to meet leaders and visit areas affected by the devastating floods in May, prior to attending the international donor conference in Brussels on Wednesday which was called to mobilise funding to help both Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina recover. The floods caused deaths, ruination of homes and livelihoods, and substantial infrastructure damage. Both countries have significant fiscal challenges which have been worsened by the need to spend on flood recovery. The response from donors was heartening. In the photos:1. A man stands in front of his ruined home - which was last flooded in 1999. He lives between two water courses, and will be flooded again and again without investment in disaster reduction by the authorities. This will require cross-border co-operation. 2. The lake in the photo is actually a flooded open coal mine - and is now the third largest lake in Serbia. Another mine was also affected. The problem is that forty per cent of Serbias energy supply comes from the two pits, and a transition to green energy wont happen overnight. Dewatering the pits is a huge technical challenge. 3. The workers are on a UNDP-supported project repairing blocked sewers - and in the spirit of building back better are putting more manholes into the sewers to make access easier in future. Much work to do. Serbia is now a formal candidate for EU accession, and UNDP is aligning its support for the country around that and around the recovery from the floods and medium to longer term disaster risk reduction. A stitch in time saves nine.... Thanks to UNDP Serbia for all arrangements.
Posted on: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 22:32:36 +0000
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