ZAGREB, 28 December, 2021 - Construction Minister Darko Horvat and Deputy Prime Minister Boris Milošević were in Petrinja on Tuesday to attend a symposium on the post-earthquake reconstruction of the Banovina region, held as part of Earthquake Engineering Days.
Addressing about 100 participants, Horvat stressed the need to prepare quality project documentation and build safe family houses and multi-residential buildings as a safeguard against future earthquakes.
"At the time of the earthquakes, we were aware that we are an administratively complicated country. Reconciling the legal framework, creating good rules of conduct and then implement them is a challenging procedure," he said.
Milošević said that the reconstruction process was under way, that 1,100 family houses that did not require structural reconstruction had been repaired and about 6,000 people had returned to their homes.
He said that a tender for the construction of multi-residential buildings would be issued today and that work was expected to start at the end of March. A tender for the construction of 165 family houses would be issued later this week, he added.
Mirjana Čagalj, Vice-President of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, said that Croatia lacked 20,000 workers for reconstruction work annually.
"Now we want everything done quickly, and a year or two from now, when we realise that some buildings were not done properly, we will be looking for culprits," she warned.
Presidential envoy Velibor Mačkić said that the earthquakes had exposed reasons why people were leaving this underdeveloped area. "That's why the success of the reconstruction process will also be measured by the number of people who will stay in this area," he noted.
Stjepan Lakušić, Dean of the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the University of Zagreb, said that this symposium should have been organised sooner, warning that the time for the use of EU funding for the reconstruction would soon run out.
Lakušić said that the experience with post-earthquake reconstruction in Zagreb should be used so as not to make the same mistakes in Banovina, stressing the need to prepare project documentation as soon as possible.
At the symposium, specialists in construction, architecture and related fields spoke of specific projects that would contribute to common solutions in the fast and quality reconstruction of the devastated area.
