ReliefWeb

Background

On 3 June 2019 five districts in Serbia (Moravica, Rasina, Sumadija, Pomoravlje and Ras, namely central and western Serbia) were affected with flash flooding caused by massive rainstorms and heavy showers that exceeded 100l/m2. Serbian Ministry for Internal Affairs, Sector for Emergency Situations declared state of emergency in these five districts. In all listed districts both rural and urban households are affected. Affected areas are localised, but heavily damaged. Municipalities that experienced significant damage in infrastructure, private sector, households and agricultural livelihood and have declared emergency situations are: Kraljevo, Knic, Ivanjica, Trstenik, Svilajnac, Paracin, Cuprija, Arilje, Lucani, Novi Pazar, Tutin, Vrnjacka banja, Sremska Mitrovica. One person has lost life. As high temperatures have been forecasted for the following days, there is a high risk of spreading contamination and infections, both among humans and animals. Water supplies are compromised. Several thousand hectares of agricultural land are destroyed as well as roads and more than 20 bridges.

Humanitarian Needs

According to the rapid needs assessment that Ecumenical Humanitarian Organization (EHO) and Philanthropy conducted in previous days, heavy showers and flash floods had critically damaged households, main livelihoods and food stocks. Houses and households items are destroyed. The water affected the crops, forcing many families to fight for their existence. There is urgent need for cattle food, shelter, sanitation support and livelihood restoration. The current situation resulted in a variety of needs having in mind that both households and crops are affected. Philanthropy will provide unconditional cash assistance in order to enable people to decide what the most urgent needs of their families are, primarily serving shelter and settlement. EHO will provide different types of fodder to sustain nutrition of livestock for 4 weeks for affected households in target locations. Affected households are depending on their agricultural goods both for their own diet and for income generation. Damage on crops is more than 80% which means that almost all of their supplies for now and for the upcoming period are devastated. Serbian authorities are not able to respond immediately due to complicated legal procedures and local authorities have been already affected with floods in 2014 and 2018 and their capacities in terms of funds are limited. Local authorities already arranged disinfection of affected households.