It is still critical around Donja Jablanica, the victims of the terrible floods have not even been counted yet. But it is already clear that someone did not do their work on time. Apocalyptic scenes of suffering and destruction caused by floods and landslides are coming from BiH. So far, 18 victims have been confirmed, and another 40 people are being searched for.
It is very difficult in Fojnica, where there are also victims, Kiseljak, places around Konjic, and the worst is in Donja Jablanica, where whole families disappeared under the flood and hundreds of tons of stones and earth.
Road and rail connections were destroyed, and traffic from Mostar to Jablanica was completely blocked. In some areas, there is no electricity, and telecommunication connections are difficult.
According to estimates, the scale of the population's suffering and material damage will exceed those of the 2014 floods that hit the region. After the initial shock, questions arise - whether more could have been done to prevent and mitigate this biggest post-war disaster in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Horror
The horror that the residents of Kiseljak, Fojnica, Konjica, Jablanica, and especially Donja Jablanica, which was the hardest hit, experienced during the night from Thursday to Friday is hard to imagine.
The wild power of the torrent after heavy rains was destroying everything in front of it. The water carries tons of earth and stones towards family houses, burying them and literally turning them into their final resting places.
"A house can be built and repaired, but lives cannot be replaced," said a shaken Jablanica resident, while at the same time reports of victims and incredible stories of survivors of the flood, destroyed houses and lost animals are coming in.
"I've never seen anything like this," said one of the members of the rescue services, preparing for the intervention in the affected Donja Jablanica.
Due to the traffic cut off and the police ban, except for members of the mountain services and civil protection, heavy machinery, it is not possible to reach the affected area from the direction of Mostar.
It is difficult to estimate when the roads and railways will be rehabilitated and re-opened to traffic, and traffic is diverted to alternative routes Sarajevo-Novi Travnik-Rostovo-Bugojno-Kupres-Tomislavgrad-Posušje-Mostar or Sarajevo-Foča-Tjentište-Gacko-Mostar.
Railway traffic was also suspended - on one section of the railway, the rails were literally left floating in the air after the torrent carried away the ground beneath them.
A state of natural disaster has been declared in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Neighboring countries, such as Croatia and Serbia, are offering help, and the chairperson of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Borjana Krišto, called on the countries of the EU and the region to provide emergency assistance to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Many humanitarian organizations and associations appeal to collect aid, and hospitals call for blood donations. The question is getting louder - whether the disaster could have been met more readily and mitigated.
"It's too late for stories about prevention"
On October 2, the Agency for the Water Area of the Adriatic Sea, based in Mostar, published a warning about the forecast of an emergency hydrological situation due to the expected heavy rainfall.
The notification about the possible increase in the water level and the occurrence of torrential flows included the municipalities and cities: Konjic, Jablanica, Mostar, Čapljina, Grude, Ljubuški, Široki Brijeg. A similar warning was sent from the Sava River Water Area Agency.
When asked whether this warning was taken into account, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Federation, Vojin Mijatović, answered at an extraordinary press conference.
"We will investigate all the circumstances and the possible responsibility of anyone who should have alerted the institutions. "I think that the key issue today is not to vulture over anyone, but to try to save as many lives as possible, and then we will clearly determine whose responsibility is for prevention," Mijatović said.
A slightly more specific answer was given by Aldin Brašnjić from the Federal Administration of Civil Protection (FUCZ), who confirmed that he immediately contacted the mayor of Jablanica regarding preventive measures.
"The civil protection of our municipalities is quite poor for the work of some preventive measures, especially when the disaster is already underway. "Prevention is something that is done while the weather is good, not when urgent rescue measures are necessary, then it's too late to talk about prevention," Brašnjić said, still criticizing the former government for the disaster they are now facing.
"He scheduled the system of previous years and the services that constantly need to clean the riverbeds and the passability of the roads. We always remember that when we get into this situation", believes the head of FUCZ.
Terrible impact of the torrent and hundreds of tons of stones
Among the many politicians and officials who visited Donja Jablanica from Sarajevo and Mostar on Friday was Minister of Foreign Affairs Elmedin Konaković. In a statement to the media, he said that it was one of the most difficult pictures he had ever seen in his life. However, he publicly mentions what is already widely "rumoured".
"Hundreds of tons of stones from the nearby quarry made a terrible impact on the entire settlement. Part of the settlement was destroyed by a rock slide, and the other by a torrent of water, because the quarry built a kind of dam and diverted the water into the valley where there were about twenty houses and flooded them with water 13 meters deep," Konaković described his view of the situation in the affected Donja Jablanica.
He says that he does not want to politicize, especially during the pre-election period, but that it should be investigated whether the disaster is the result of an incredible force of nature or whether there are other influences.
This raises many issues - uncontrolled deforestation and soil erosion, construction of economic and private facilities in areas prone to landslides and floods, small hydroelectric power plants on rivers, and the like. From whom to ask for answers and is the word of experts respected?
"The authorities definitely have a responsibility"
Edin Hrelja from the Faculty of Science and Mathematics in Sarajevo clearly states: "The authorities definitely have a responsibility when it comes to floods, because they do not undertake any activities in the so-called interflood period".
He believes that experts who deal with this issue should be more involved in order to provide guidelines for prevention and identify zones that can potentially be affected by floods.
"As always when disasters happen, only then do we start talking about it. Just like during the floods in 2014, and it's similar with air pollution, lack of water, climate change... Unfortunately, the profession is often not respected, buildings are built where they shouldn't be built", commented Professor Hrelja for BHRT1.
Journalist and analyst Faruk Kajtaz also thinks similarly, but with reference to the "change in priorities" of the rulers.
"This is happening to us for two reasons - natural phenomena and the fact that our country is not prepared for this type of disaster. Some much richer and more organized countries are not ready either, and here it is at a level that is really worrying," he comments for DW.
Kajtaz takes a look at the ever-present consequences of climate change, which scientists are warning about, and which will become more frequent in the future, for which many countries are preparing.
"We naively believe that it is better to spend money on other budget items, usually before elections, than to invest in protection. Can we expect our country, which is so complicated and spends more on its own 'hardware' than any European country per capita, to come up with serious prevention plans and raise the level of preparedness for what awaits it? "Perhaps this is a signal for the authorities to finally pull themselves out of national stories and focus on what the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina really need," concludes Kajtaz.
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