Doboj Jug without sewage: Waiting for clean water has lasted two decades

(Patria) - Residents of the municipality of Doboj Jug have been waiting for connection to the sewage network for years, which has remained unfinished since construction began almost twenty years ago. This local community, one of the smallest in Bosnia and Herzegovina, faces major problems in the area of communal infrastructure, which negatively affects the quality of life of its inhabitants.

Salih Omeragić, who bought a house in the settlement of Matuzići 15 years ago, emphasizes the importance of connecting to the sewage system.

“Sewage means fewer problems, better health, and that's it, because when it rains, you can feel it, this and that, and now it will be better. So we hope to connect at least by the end of September,” said Omeragić, BHRT reports.

His neighbor Mirzeta Smajlović says that the connection has brought relief.

“I no longer have wastewater. It was all there, in some septic tank, where it stank, where it was horrible,” she stated.

The construction of the sewage network in this area began two decades ago, and so far, about 17.5 kilometers of the network have been built, covering approximately half of the municipality. However, secondary pipelines pose a problem, which are extremely demanding to construct due to the terrain configuration, slowing down the connection of all users.

The mayor of Doboj Jug, Mirnes Tukić, estimates that the completion of the remaining part of the system requires about 2.5 million marks, which will mostly be financed from the cantonal budget and environmental protection funds.

“We estimate that we need about two and a half million funds to realize the remaining part of the secondary sewage network system. We will mostly finance this from the cantonal budget from water fees and from the Environmental Protection Fund of the FBiH Government,” Tukić points out.

The director of the local utility company “VIS” Doboj Jug, Maid Škiljo, emphasizes the current status of the network.

“About 40 to 50 percent is covered by the sewage network. However, the problem is the secondary pipelines, which are very difficult to bring to users due to the soil configuration,” Škiljo notes.

The unbuilt wastewater treatment plant is also a particular problem. Joint facilities for Doboj Jug, Tešanj, and Usora were planned earlier, but these efforts failed, and the local communities abandoned the agreement. Mayor Tukić emphasizes that Doboj Jug will build its own treatment plant because the existing project is not economically viable.

“We will build a treatment plant for our citizens, given that we have brought all the sewage infrastructure downstream, the project proposed by Tešanj is upstream, in Kraševo, so we would have to pump all the sewage, which would increase our costs, it is an extremely high price and it would not be economical for our citizens,” he said.

Estimates suggest that it will take another ten years and four million marks of investment to complete the sewage network and build the treatment plant.

While waiting for the completion of this communal infrastructure, the citizens of Doboj Jug hope that they will finally resolve their long-standing problems and have adequate living conditions.