The Balkans Hit by Devastating Floods

You can be forgiven for not knowing, that whilst the media has been focusing its euro attention on Nigel Farage and the Eurovision song contest that during April and May the Balkans (also in Europe) has been hit by largest floods in decades, leaving dozens dead and ten of thousands of people without food, security or shelter.

Claudia von Gestern artist, writer and activist based in Sarajevo sent Nerve this report (20/5/2014)

Bosnia and Herzegovina was slammed the hardest by the present floods. Most of Bosnia and Herzegovina was flooded; the Sarajevo Canton was hit the hardest, although Sarajevo itself was hardly touched. Other impacted areas include Zenica-Doboj, Tuzla, northern and northeastern Bosnia, as well as the region Semberija. The flood was the result of the extraordinary rainfalls during the months of April and May. The town of Maglaj for example experienced two months of rainfall in less than 48 hours. The Bosnian government declared a state of emergency on the 16th of May.

Today, the 19th May, is the sixth day of the worst floods. Whole areas are totally flooded with water levels reaching rooftops. Many towns are cut off, some of them cannot be reached. Many areas have no electricity. In addition to all this, the areas around Travnik have seen immense snowfalls. People were left with no electricity, no gas, simply no possibility to heat anything, if at all they had their houses left.

It’s hard to imagine this reality - Whole cities and districts are drowned in water, houses have been swept away, in many cases it seems unlikely that remaining buildings can ever be restored, bridges were destroyed, streets are blocked by water and landslides and many roads were destroyed. According to the first estimates 1,2 million people were left unsheltered. Furthermore, landmines that remained from the 1990s Yugoslavia war were disturbed and have been causing additional damage. Another consequence of the landslide is, that landmines have shifted to other areas, meaning people who once stayed clear of areas known to be covered in landmines are no longer sure of where or where not to tread.

The situation has got so severe that an epidemic is expected to spread due contaminated water supplies. Medial care is very important.

People in Bosnia and Herzegovina are in desperate need of help. You can support them by donating foot cans, baby food, food for people with diabetes, hygiene articles, medicine, cloths of any kind, blankets, fuel. Basically whatever you can think of because hundreds of thousands of people, who had little to begin with, have lost everything.

Financial donations can also be made to: Korisnik:
VLADA FBIH -FEDERALNO MINISTARSTVO FINANSIJA-FINANCIJA
IBAN COD: BA391020500000106795
UNION BANKA DD SARAJEVO
SWIFTCODE: UBKSBA22
(Information for foreign language speakers: www.unionbank.ba)

Claudia adds ‘What I am afraid of personally is that in a couple of weeks the international interested will have vanished. It would be of high importance if people would raise awareness internationally for the ongoing misery of the flood’s victims. People here will be in need for a very long time to come’.

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