Members of the Civil Protection Administration of Bosnia’s Republika Srpska (RS) entity provided assistance to the municipality of Kozarska Dubica, while in Sanski Most a natural disaster was declared after the Bliha and Zdena rivers overflowed due to heavy rainfall during the past few days. 

“According to official information received from the Mayor of the Kozarska Dubica municipality, the 100-meter-long embankment overflowed, but all efforts are being made to protect human lives and property in the Dragsenic location,” the Administration said.

The city of Banjaluka sent help to Kozarska Dubica in the form of a machine for filling sandbags and 10,000 pieces of sandbags. The RS Civil Protection Administration announced that, if the situation on the ground required it, additional forces would be engaged to help local communities.

Kozarska Dubica Mayor Radenko Reljic, declared a state of emergency in the area of Dubicka Ravni last night after water overflowed the perimeter canal in the town of Svetinja.

Alarm sirens sounded in Sanski Most last night after the water level of the Sana River reached a critical point of 347 centimetres, the inmedia portal reported.

The locals say that the authorities’ reaction was delayed and they fear the river could spill out of the riverbed, given that it is still raining, and hydrometeorological services are predicting precipitation in the coming days.

Large amounts of precipitation are forecast for the north of the country on Sunday and an orange warning has been issued.

The most challenging situation is in the towns of Vrse, Naprelje, Stari Majdan, Trnova, as well as the settlements of Alagica polje and Zdena, where local watercourses have left their beds and reached houses and households, and some have even been flooded. Currently, the situation is critical in the very centre of Sanski Most, where Zdena has overflowed its banks in some places, so Prijedorska Street is also underwater. An additional problem is created by underground water.