After May floods: 15 houses in Topčić Polje still awaiting reconstruction

Residents of Topčić Polje are again fearing floods and landslides, which hit this place on the border between Zenica and the municipality of Žepče in May last year, when more than 100 houses and other facilities were destroyed, writes the BH News Agency Patria.

The Bosna River, which flows through this place, as well as the tons of mud brought by the landslide, made the village unrecognizable in just one day eight months ago.

By the beginning of this year, thanks to the Municipality of Zenica, as well as humanitarian organizations from the country and the world, most of the damaged facilities have been repaired. Only between ten and 15 houses remain that were completely destroyed and whose owners are waiting for the authorities to tell them what they plan to do with them, because they cannot and must not undertake repairs on their properties themselves.

However, the locals are now worried again because they fear new rainfall, which would bring new troubles to Topčić Polje.

Zejnir Halilović, who lost his house during the landslide last year, still lives in a house that a friend gave him to use. In an interview with the Patria agency, he says that a lot has been done on the reconstruction of the village, but very little on preventing new landslides. If the rainfall were as heavy as last year, Topčić Polje would be endangered again, and perhaps buried again.

- My house was destroyed, as well as the workshop where I produced beehives. But, despite everything, my family has not lost hope and will, and we will continue to fight through life – says Halilović.

Zejnir and his neighbors are now just looking at the sky and hoping that they will never again suffer the fate they did last year, which was perhaps the hardest for them, writes Patria.