The European Commission has approved an eighth payment request from Croatia for spending on flood defence, better water management and access to drinking water for 45,000 people.
It is the eighth payment request to be made under Croatia’s ‘Recovery and Resilience Plan’, which totals €10 billion in loans and grants from the EC.
Among the projects are carbon capture facilities, biofuel and hydrogen production, subsea cable connections to the main grid for six islands and flood defences to protect 20,000 people.
Freshwater systems are being regenerated and protected at the Mirna river area and Vransko and Trakoscan lakes, which will include removing invasive species from the Neretva Delta. Works are due to be finished by June.
Measures have also been carried out to reduce losses in the public water supply system by at least 7%, and at least 12 waste water treatment plants have been upgraded or built last year.
Under the plans, Croatia has been busily building or re-building almost 2,000km of public water supply infrastructure, with the result that 45,000 people will be supplied with drinking water.
“This refers to a population that had not previously been connected to a public water supply system or had water of inadequate quality,” the plan says. There will also be 775km of new or renovated sewerage networks.
Flood defence
A flood risk reduction programme focuses on the largest Croatian rivers of the River Danube basin, including defensive embankments and broad inundation areas along water courses ‘in line with nature-based solutions’ a principle of ‘giving space to rivers’, the plan says.
According to the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR), 15% of Croatian’s mainland is at risk of flooding; however it says the major part is protected to varying degrees.
Measures, based on lowland flood storages and expansion areas, have enabled preservation of environmentally favourable conditions on wide floodplains, it says. In the Drava and Danube Basins, protection is based on embankments and wide foreshores.
There is a willingness to carry out flood defences with nature-based solution measures, and between 2022 and today, at least 160km of protective structures have been built for the purpose as well as water courses restored and abandoned sleeves revitalised.
There are also a number of digitalisation projects outlined, with an apparent emphasis on supporting small and medium-sized companies to upgrade. There are also plans for remediating landfill sites.
