ZAGREB, 28 December, 2021 - A €2 billion plan for the social and economic revitalisation of Sisak-Moslavina County in the next eight years was presented by the Croatian government on Monday, ahead of the first anniversary of the devastating earthquakes.
The plan envisages investments in the infrastructure, the enterprise sector and in demographic projects in that county in the next eight years.
Some of the major projects are the completion of the Zagreb-Sisak motorway, incentives for entrepreneurial activities in the county and post-quake reconstruction of housing units.
Presenting the long-term programme, Regional Development and EU Funds Minister Nataša Tramišak said that the government was guided by the imperative to improve the situation in the county.
"We have drawn up the programme of the demographic, social and economic revitalisation of the whole county so as to stop the implications of the 2020 earthquakes being felt in the long run, and prevent the further deprivation of the whole area," said Minister Tramišak.
Economy Minister Tomislav Ćorić said at the presentation that one of the prerequisites of stronger integration of Banovina and the whole of Sisak-Moslavina County would be infrastructural and transport connectivity. Therefore a large amount of the investments envisaged under the plan will go for road and railway corridors, he said.
1st anniversary of devastating quakes in county
In the morning of 28 December 2020, Sisak-Moslavina County was struck by a 5.0-strong quake, with the epicentre near the city of Petrinja. An the day after that, the county was rocked by an earthquake measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale, and it took eight lives. Five villagers were killed by the disaster in Majske Poljane, and in the town of Petrinja, a 13-year-old girl lost her life. A seventh victim was found in the rubble of a church in Žažina. The eighth victim was a woman who died in March 2021 of the injuries she sustained in the quake. Another two persons were killed while clearing the rubble in the aftermath of the quake.
Twenty eight (28) people were injured in the disaster.
The quakes inflicted huge damage to the county, and some damage related to the Sisak-Moslavina quake was reported in neighbouring counties, too.
The World Bank has estimated the quake damage at €5.5 billion. The European Union has disbursed from the Solidarity Fund €319 million in aid to Croatia to deal with the aftermath of the quake.
Roughly 40,000 buildings and structures were damaged by the earthquakes, and 5,000 of them were labelled to be temporarily out of use.
Local inhabitants have submitted requests for the reconstruction of 9,568 properties.
In the aftermath, about 450 properties were demolished as they posed a safety risk.
To date, 1,108 family houses have been renovated by the authorities and another 470 houses have been renovated by their owners.
