Eurasia Press & News
The grim business of destroying the corpses of thousands of cattle and other livestock, killed in the recent floods, is drawing to a close in Bosnia.
Federation entity inspectors on June 5 said work on gathering, destroying or burying the remains of thousands of animals and birds killed in the recent floods was coming to an end.
Around 200 tons of dead cattle and poultry have been removed from the Posavina Canton of northern Bosnia to an incinerator in Indjija, in Serbia, Balkan Insight has learned.
‘As for the dead cattle, we are largely done with that now,’ Stanko Sliskovic, the chief veterinary inspector of the Federation entity, said.
‘Now we will be looking into the possible contamination… of water and land,’ he added.
In the Zenica-Doboj Canton in central Bosnia, which was flooded by the river Bosna, cattle and poultry are said to have been buried in safe conditions in various town dumps.
The Veterinary Service of Bosnia’s other entity, Republika Srpska, has also been involved in gathering and destroying the bodies of thousands of animals killed in floods in the entity.
In Doboj, around 200 dead cattle and more than 17,000 dead chickens were taken to a pit located within the town garbage dump.
In the northern town of Samac, by the river of Sava, around 2,000 dead cattle have been buried in the town dump, or taken to Indjija.
Around 40 tons of dead animals were taken to Indjija from the northestern town of Bijeljina as well, while another 20 tons was sent to the town garbage dump.
‘By June 1, all dead animals were taken care of and we are now acting on individual reports,’ the Veterinary Service of Republika Srpska said.
The areas around Maglaj, Doboj, Samac, Bijeljina and Brcko were among the worst hit by the recent floods in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In some places, the floodwater reached six metres deep after it spilled over the banks of the rivers Bosna and Sava.
The rivers Drina, Vrbas, Una and Sana also flooded the areas around them. Authorities said that one-fifth of the territory of Bosnia was flooded at the worst point.
More than 20 people died in the floods while over a million people were reportedly affected.
Around 50,000 people had to be evacuated from their homes.
Estimates of the damage caused by the floods are still being drawn up ahead of a planned donors conference.
Meanwhile, different services, including the veterinary and healthcare services, are trying to determine the risk of diseases, which could yet hit the country now the water has receded.
