Landslides, disease pose threats in wake of devastating flooding in Balkans

UN humanitarian agencies on Friday raised concerns about landslides and possible water-borne diseases from the worst flooding in Serbia and Bosnia in more than a century, and sounded alarmed over the possible exposure of deadly minefields left from the Bosnian war. The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Friday the devastating floodwaters have affected around 1 million people, or a quarter of the population in Bosnia, driven some 300,000 away from their homes, and forced closure of schools and social health centers. In Serbia, 150 schools in the most-affected areas remained closed. Authorities of Bosnia have reportedly issued strong warnings of the unearthing of mines and other unexploded devices from the 1992- 1995 conflict as a result of the landslides. In Bosnia, UNICEF was taking the lead in water sanitation, hygiene protection and education sectors in cooperation with other partners. The agency had procured 300 hygiene kits and distributed more than 1 ton of chlorine to decontaminate water supplies in the affected areas, where a significant number of dead animals floating in waters have posed a grave risk to public health. UNICEF, which has mobilized 120 volunteers psycho-social workers, mostly psychologists students, to be deployed to child- friendly spaces, was requesting an initial 3.6 million U.S. dollars to meet the immediate and medium term needs of children and women in the affected areas in both countries. As relief efforts continued, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) readied for another airlift of emergency supplies to arrive in the Balkans Saturday morning. The WFP said earlier this week that it would launch a 1.5 million dollars funding in response to immediate humanitarian needs upon the Serbian government's request and in coordination with other UN organizations on the ground. Also briefing the press, Clare Nullis, media officer with the World Meteorological Organization, said that her agency was working to assess what damage had been done to meteorological equipment in Bosnia. Nullis said the meteorological services had given "very good" warnings of flooding in advance through the website of Meteoalarm. "Without those warnings, the death toll would probably have been much higher," she said.