Lagumdžija in New York: Showed Ki-moon an amateur video of the floods

Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina Zlatko Lagumdžija met with United Nations leaders in New York, announced the BiH Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reports the Bosnian news agency Patria (NAP).

Lagumdžija also met with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and President of the UN General Assembly John W. Ashe.

In order to adequately present the extent of the damage suffered by our country in the catastrophic floods of the past month, Lagumdžija showed officials an amateur video posted on the YouTube video service about the floods in BiH. As announced, the video was made by volunteers from BiH, and you can watch it here. The SDP BiH is listed as the author of the video.

Incidentally, Lagumdžija expressed gratitude for the emergency assistance provided in mitigating the consequences of the greatest natural disaster to hit our country in the last 120 years. He particularly emphasized the excellent cooperation of the UN team in BiH, led by Yuri Afanasiev, who reacted promptly and, together with BiH institutions, worked and continues to work on mitigating the consequences of the floods.

Lagumdžija pointed out that an assessment of the damage caused by the floods is underway, conducted jointly by international and BiH experts, whose report will be completed by June 18. After that, the organization of a donor conference will begin, which should be held in the first half of July this year.

He also noted that the phase of emergency humanitarian aid in BiH has been completed and that the reconstruction phase lies ahead, with priority given to repairing housing units so that people whose homes were damaged or completely destroyed in the floods have a roof over their heads by winter. Special attention will be paid to assisting businesses that suffered significant damage in order to preserve jobs, and through the process of reconstruction and rebuilding of the country, to create new ones.

Priorities in reconstruction also include repairs to infrastructure such as bridges and roads, waste management, water supply, and land rehabilitation.

Secretary-General Ki-moon once again expressed condolences to the families of those who perished in the floods and assessed the response of all participants in the urgent phase of rescuing citizens as good. He added that the United Nations, together with the European Union, the World Bank, and experts from BiH, are working on assessing the damage caused by the floods and will actively participate in the reconstruction and rebuilding process.

The United Nations will, according to Ban Ki-moon, also actively participate in the donor conference.

Dr. Lagumdžija informed the UN Secretary-General about the initiative to establish a monitoring team at the state level, composed of representatives of domestic authorities, international institutions, donors, the academic community, the non-governmental sector, and the media, which would oversee the spending of financial aid collected at the donor conference intended for mitigating the consequences of the floods, as well as the reconstruction and rebuilding of the country, the NAP report states.