Our rivers are so polluted, they are turning into garbage bins and that is our biggest problem regarding the ever more frequent floods in the country, said head of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) entity's Civil Protection Agency, Fahrudin Solak, for N1.
“The water is subsiding. We're pumping the water out of facilities and clearing the sludge, but the water brought a lot of garbage with it. It shows just how well we treat our rivers. They are used as garbage bins, and that's our biggest problem,” Solak said.
Heavy rain and warm weather which melted all the snow caused rivers to swellaccross the country. The floods did not only affect the FBiHentity, but the other Bosnian semi-autonomous entity – the Republika Srpska (RS). The RS Civil Protection Agency said on Monday that their mine-clearance team found several discarded hand and rifle grenades that were washed ashore by floods in the Southern Bosnian town of Nevesinje.
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The RS Civil Protection Agency appealed to citizens not to throw any explosives into rivers, especially when rivers swell and become unpredictable.
“Throwing of unexploded explosive ordnance in streams and rivers increases the danger of mine incidents with consequences for people, animals and property,” they said.
The RS Agency added that if citizens want to dispose of bombs or other explosives, they should do so by bringing explosives to them or the nearest police station, or even by calling the Agency to pick up the explosives.
The Head of FBiH's Civil Protection Agency told N1 that people must change the way they see rivers and they must allow the competent services to clean and rearrange riverbeds regularly so floods would not happen so often.
