The “town on four rivers” will finally receive some flood protection.
Minister of Environmental Protection and Energy Tomislav Ćorić visited Karlovac, which has been threatened by high waters of the Kupa river in recent days. He said that the flood defence system, worth 670 million kunas, would be built in the period from 2018 to 2023, reports tportal.hr on September 21, 2017.
Three days ago, Minister Ćorić and Prime Minister Andrej Plenković visited the nearby Ogulin, which was hit by floods. The visits convinced the government that the construction of the flood control system in Karlovac County should begin as soon as possible. The projects for the town of Karlovac will be included in the list of strategic projects.
After visiting the defended and undefended parts of the town and seeing the difference, Minister Ćorić asked the citizens for a little more patience. He pointed out that it would be his priority as the environmental protection minister to defend Karlovac from flooding.
He announced that he would insist that activities in connection with the construction of the embankment in the Logorište neighbourhood should start in 2018. “We will deal with property and legal issues and paperwork, and we will start focusing on the currently undefended areas. The Ministry of Environmental Protection, in cooperation with the Croatian Waters public company, will do everything to keep this promise,” concluded Ćorić.
Croatian Waters managing director Zoran Đuroković said that this was the first time that the flood defence system was considered as a whole and that until now individual problems were solved separately. He added that they would start from Logorište, which is the most vulnerable area.
Đuroković pointed out that 11,000 plots of land have to be purchased for the problem to be solved in the whole Karlovac area, and that it is impossible for everything to be done immediately. The project will include the construction of 50 kilometres of embankments and the restoration of the Kupčina retention area which will be able to take 120 million cubic meters of water from the Kupa-Kupa channel. “This is all part of the action plan which has been presented to the European Union. We expect to receive 85 percent of the money needed from the European funds,” he concluded.
Karlovac County Prefect Damir Jelić said that Minister Ćorić came to visit the area so that he would see for himself what was needed to complete the flood defence system for Ogulin, Karlovac and Ozalj, because, as he pointed out, “it is unacceptable that there are families whose houses have been flooded five times in three years.”
There are as many as four rivers flowing through Karlovac. Despite this, it is the largest town in Croatia without a serious flood defence system.
Translated from tportal.hr.
