Mud, despair and disaster in Ivanjica: No running water for days, landslides, villages cut off

A landslide in Ivanjica; Photo: Rina.rs

Two days after the catastrophic floods, only mud and despair remain in Ivanjica. The unprecedented water fury carried everything in its path, destroying raspberry orchards, sawmills, but also fishponds. Tomislav Milutinovic from the village of Osonica found tons of dead fish in a field.

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"We saw that the water took away the whole pond, and now that it has receded, there are dead fingerlings everywhere. 150,000 have been killed, as well as eight tons of adult fish and the entire parent flock. My family's livelihood depended on that and that was the only job we had. This is an unprecedented situation in Ivanjica, no one remembers floods like this," Tomislav told RINA.

Ivanjica now has the biggest problem with landslides, which have appeared in the territory of almost the entire municipality; roads have also been destroyed and several villages cut off.

"Landslides threaten to capture almost all roads, teams are on the ground and are constantly working on fixing them. The state road Ivanjica-Usce is in danger of being blocked, due to an active landslide. The most difficult situation is on the road Ivanjica-Medjurecje, while the villages of Pridvorica, Devici, Brusnik and Ostatija have been cut off," said Momcilo Mitrovic, the deputy mayor of Ivanjica.

Two thirds of the main water pipeline in Ivanjica are still under flood water, so citizens have not had running water since Monday.

"A big problem has arisen, because the question is when the water supply will be reestablished, it could be in seven or 15 days. Tank trucks with water have come to our aid, as well as a truck of (bottled) water as emergency help," Mitrovic stressed.

(Telegraf.rs/RINA)