ZAGREB, April 2, 2018 – The director general of the Hrvatske Vode utility Zoran Đuroković said on Monday Croatia had absorbed five to six percent of the European Union funds allocated for the municipal water infrastructure but that he expected all funds to be absorbed by 2023, when the financial period for spending the funds ends.
Speaking to reporters in Sikirevci, Đuroković said 1.05 billion euro was available for the municipal water infrastructure. He said 26 projects had been approved and launched, with another nine to be approved in a month’s time.
He recalled that Croatia also had 150 million euro at its disposal for flood prevention, and said a tender worth 160 million kuna had been advertised. “We intend to rebuild 200 km of the embankment from Nova Gradiška to the Serbian border. That’s worth 50 million euro. I have no doubt that we will utilise all funds by 2023.”
Commenting on those data, Environmental Protection and Energy Minister Tomislav Ćorić said the pace of fund absorption would be better if project preparation had been more intensive.
The two officials visited the water supply plant in Sikirevci where works began today to connect it to the town of Slavonski Brod, which has no drinking water since Saturday due to the pollution of its water supply plant.
Responding to questions from the press, Ćorić said certain clean-up measures had been taken at the location outside Slavonski Brod where oil products leaked last week, but that the priority had been to connect the town to the Sikirevci water supply plant so that citizens could get drinking water.
After the presence of oil products was noticed on the soil above an oil pipeline, the Crodux energy company began cleaning up the area, saying that 150-200 litres of oil products had leaked out, which has been confirmed by an environmental protection inspection team.
Slavonski Brod Mayor Mirko Duspara, however, said the leak must have been markedly greater, considering the area that was polluted. He said tens of thousands of litres of oil products had leaked and that the clean-up had not been efficient.
In order to establish all the circumstances of the incident, the town has pressed charges. County police said on Sunday they were investigating the case in cooperation with the local prosecutor’s office.
