How Sarajlić and Municipal Authorities Issued Building Permits Despite Landslides

In the Svrake location in 2001, partial landslide remediation was carried out under the supervision of the KS Construction Institute. There are a large number of areas in the Municipality of Vogošća where geologists have stated that the land is conditionally stable or unstable, said Edin Smajić, Mayor of the Municipality of Vogošća, for the BiH news agency Patria (NAP).

The question arises as to how construction was permitted in that location at all. Previously, for the BiH news agency Patria, families whose houses were destroyed in the landslide stated that they had obtained a permit from the then municipal authorities with Mayor Asim Sarajlić eight years ago, but that no one had warned them of this danger.

We remind you that Asim Sarajlić was the Mayor of the Municipality of Vogošća for two terms, from 2004 to 2008 and from 2008 to 2010, when he was succeeded by Smajić due to winning a parliamentary mandate in the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH in the 2010 General Elections.

Smajić told Patria that the Municipality of Vogošća, according to expert assessments, has 23 critical points regarding landslides and is the most endangered in terms of soil composition. The unfavorable geological soil composition and heavy rainfall caused the landslide.

- Regarding the landslide situation, we had 133 reports, geologists visited 130 locations, and 23 were declared high-risk locations. These locations, especially Svrake, are under constant supervision by experts and geologists. Any assessment of safety cannot be made by politicians, but by experts who will say whether something is stable or not – said Smajić.

We remind you that in the landslide that occurred on the night of May 16, fifteen buildings in Svrake were completely destroyed, and for six buildings in the immediate vicinity of the landslide, no one can say with certainty whether it will be possible to return to them.

- Around 170 people were displaced from their homes in the immediate zone, i.e., 21 buildings. About twenty families from the Podgaj settlement were displaced because it is near Svrake, and all people are temporarily accommodated in three motels and the Red Cross Home in Jošanica. They have been provided with food during this period, three meals a day, and whatever else was possible at that moment – said Smajić.

He confirmed that the KS Government made a decision on Friday to provide apartments in Rosulje for the family members of people whose buildings were destroyed or significantly damaged, writes Patria.