Floods in Vojvodina: Water Gone – Problems Stayed

Aniko Muskinja Heinrich, the Provincial Ombudsman and her Deputy Eva Vukasinovic visited the village of Jamena, a settlement on the borders of Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina nearly devastated by the floods in May 2014. The water rose up to the center of the village of a thousand people and damaged most of the houses, fields and crops.

The village officials estimate the damage exceeds four million euro. The water flooded 147 family houses and 50 other buildings. Six houses were completely and another six partially destroyed. No fields remained unaffected by the floods, so they will have grave existential consequences for the villagers, all of them working in agriculture. They have insurance over their fields against hail, but not against floods, so they will have no income over the next year. After nearly a month in force, the state of emergency ended mid-June, but quite a number of them are still living outdoors and in tents. There is no reliable or credible information on when the reconstruction of the houses will start. There have been some charity shipments to the village, but currently there is a grave lack of livestock fodder.

The citizens’, gathered in the village center on this occasion, complained mostly about being omitted from the damages assessment procedure and about the problems with the aid distribution. People whose crops have been destroyed wanted to know who is in charge of compensating for their loss.

Besides acting upon the citizens’ complaints, the Provincial Ombudsman will undertake all measures within its mandate to provide them with information from the relevant authorities.