The Dutch Team Risk Reduction (DRR) is visiting Serbia this week, with a team of water experts. Mathijs van Ledden, Director Flood Risk Reduction at Royal HaskoningDHV is one of the participants.
The visit includes Obrenovac, which was severely affected by the floods in May last year. At that period Van Ledden was in Serbia to assess the flood situation and the dikes. The mission this week is to analyse the situation on a larger scale.
At 19 January the DRR team visited Mr Marko Blagojevic, Director of the Flood Relief Office (SFAAARO: Serbian Flood Affected Areas Assistance and Rehabilitation Office) for the official kick-off of the DRR mission.
The request on behalf of the Serbian Government for help on DRR was sent by SFAAARO which is the office that coordinates the flood relief efforts and is working on the next stage in the process as well in which prevention will be the focus. Expectations were shared, the program for the week discussed, the stakeholders to visit and where the Netherlands can add most value.
More specific the flood issues around Obrenovac and the nearby coal mines and energy plant Nikola Tesla, all in the Kolubara river basin, were discussed. This area has been affected severely during the flood in 2014.
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Press Release