New German donation delivered to Obrenovac

New German donation delivered to Obrenovac

Hasenau expressed "satisfaction with the opportunity to visit Obrenovac once more on behalf of the German embassy and see what else his country can do to help."

He specified that the German Red Cross donated food and announced that new modes of mid-term and long-term assistance to the flood-hit population would be discussed at the donor conference in Brussels and at the preparatory meeting in Paris.

Secretary of the Obrenovac Red Cross Žikica Popović expressed gratitude to the German government for assistance and said "this is not the first time that Germany is assisting the vulnerable citizens in the town."

The German government funded the work of soup kitchens and many other programs in the past, Popović said and expressed the hope that the cooperation will continue.

German experts from the Organization for Technical Assistance are staying in Obrenovac as well and are managing the water filtering plant at the instruction issued by the German government.

The water from the local water supply system in Obrenovac is still good only for technical use.

The mobile plant for water filtration is based in the Bora Marković barracks grounds which still accommodate evacuees whose homes were destroyed.

Team leader Tobias Burga told Tanjug that the water from the Kolubara River which has been polluted by coal, manganese, mud and heavy metals, is being filtered with the help of special devices in order to turn it into drinking water.

Two trucks loaded with 6,000-8,000 liters of filtered drinking water are used to fill the containers at several checkpoints in the municipality and the water quality is controlled through most rigorous examinations.

Out of the EUR 2 million worth of assistance allocated to Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina by the German government, a total of EUR 150,000 have been placed at the disposal of the German Red Cross which will use the money to help the flood-hit population in Serbia.

The German government announced that it would also allocate the funds for reconstruction of the area hit by the catastrophic floods and a number of German companies doing business in Germany and Serbia provided assistance to the population from the flood-hit areas.

In cooperation with the German-Serbian Business Association, Germany-Serbian Forum and HELP Humanitarian Organization, the German embassy in Serbia raised some RSD 1,904,104 worth of aid.