Work on removing damage to be stepped up in coming weeks

Ten seconds of earthquake require a dozen years of reconstruction, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Tuesday in Petrinja, where he attended a session of the task force in charge of removing the consequences of the 29 December 2020 earthquake in Sisak-Moslavina County.

The task force analysed its activities and the situation in the quake-hit region six months after the earthquake.

Asked about deadlines for the reconstruction process, Plenković told reporters that all easier work would be completed as soon as possible, by the start of the next heating season, but that the demanding structural reconstruction was slow due to the need to deal with complex property-rights relations.

"Ten seconds of earthquake require a dozen years of reconstruction," he said, adding that it was not realistic to expect reconstruction to be fast after an earthquake as strong as the last one, because the relevant procedures took time and the process of raising funds was not easy either.

Difficult to make promises, give deadlines 

"It is difficult to make promises or give any deadlines because if something is not implemented, it will turn out that I have made a false promise," Plenković said.

He added that in the past six months 2,276 housing containers and mobile homes had been secured, as individual units or as parts of 12 container settlements, and that recently 930 portable air conditioners had been provided for mobile housing units without an air conditioner.

A total of 867,100 meals have been distributed to earthquake victims and operational forces on the ground, and that job is gradually being taken over by local catering businesses, Plenković said, adding that 154 damaged public, commercial and housing units had been removed so far.

He noted that more than 6,900 applications for non-structural and 8,769 applications for structural reconstruction had been submitted and that the State Office for Housing Provision was conducting activities to remove minor earthquake damage.

Work on removing damage to be stepped up in coming weeks

"That process is being accelerated, many houses have been put to use, and we expect the process to be stepped up in the coming weeks. In Petrinja, a joint office of several ministries and the city government has been set up and it communicates with citizens on a daily basis as the central point for the coordination of all activities," he said.

Plenković mentioned the government's decisions on assistance to the residents of the earthquake-hit area such as exemption from the payment of electricity bills, TV licence fee, road toll, railway transport etc.

He said a task force for a project of the social-demographic revival and economic revitalisation of the Banovina region had been formed, announcing closer cooperation with the newly-elected mayors and the county head to help remove the huge material damage caused by the earthquake in the years to come.

Text: Hina

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