Actuality

Director of the Office for Reconstruction and Flood Relief Marko Blagojević stressed that more than three million Euros had been allocated for flood relief efforts in Ub so far. The funds had been invested to reconstruct damaged residential buildings, construct new houses, assist the farmers, construct plastic greenhouses, said Blagojević, underscoring that each dinar invested in prevention equaled seven dinars spent to reconstruct what had been damaged.

He also stressed that prevention would be the priority of the state in the years to come. The year of 2014 was destined to be the year of reconstruction, whereas 2015 would be the year of prevention, said Blagojević.

He specified that the Office, together with the UN, would construct a torrent-check barrier in Ub, the biggest so far, 75 meters wide and three meters high. Blagojević noted that the dam would prevent any future damage which would be several times larger than the amount of the funds invested to construct the dam itself.

“The damage caused by floods stands at 1.7 billion Euros. We did what we could – over 20,000 families in Serbia have received assistance, over 430 families whose houses were destroyed in floods have been taken care of, while a large amount of money has been spent to reconstruct the infrastructure which was very important so that the disaster does not happen again. Now, we need to focus on the prevention”, underlined Blagojević.

President and founder of the UNITAS Foundation Branko Kovačević said that the fund had been extremely active at the time of floods and that all flood relief donations had come from the friends of the fund, mainly from abroad.

“We have constructed four houses and sent some furniture to Krupanj. Furthermore, we will donate 11 plastic greenhouses, and also a quantity of fertilizers. That is to say, we will have the pleasure to inform our donors that we did a good job and that all the funds ended up in the right hands”, said Kovačević.

Following the devastating floods in the municipality of Ub, the UNITAS Foundation donated close to 1.5 million dinars to farmers. Eleven families received plastic greenhouses worth 1,368,562 dinars. In addition, the donation included 105,500 dinars for the purchase of fertilizers and seeds to recover the resources and restart the business.

Furthermore, the UNITAS Foundation constructed houses for four families in the municipalities of Obrenovac and Krupanj, worth more than 100,000 Euros.