Relocation of 150 homes under consideration in Braslovče
Braslovče, 18 August - State officials and experts are looking into the possibility of moving 150 homes on the left and right banks of the Savinja in Braslovče municipality after more than 250 buildings were recently flooded there. Detention reservoirs are to be built in their place to improve flood safety, Mayor Tomaž Žohar told the STA.
Celje
The swollen Savinja in Celje.
Photo: Cele.si
File photo
"We are looking for optimal solutions to help all those who were left homeless both socially and financially. Secondly, we want to take measures that contribute to flood safety in the long term in the entire Savinja river basin, from Solčava to Laško so that this never happens again," the mayor said.
The Savinja needs its space and optimal solutions are being sought in cooperation with experts, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Spatial Planning, the Water Agency and hydrologists, he said.
The mayor believes the Savinja should have room to spill over in a controlled way and the area where the 150 houses stand now is an area where the river always used to spill in the past.
"Slovenia made the mistake of urbanising areas in the past which were floodplains. We want to correct that. We also want to help all those who were left homeless," he stressed.
Two neighbourhoods in the town of Letuš, where currently 150 houses stand, are to be moved to another area in the municipality that is safe from earthquakes and floods, he said.
According to unofficial information obtained by the N1 news portal, the new residential area is to be built in the Rakovlje area.
Žohar told the STA the new location was not confirmed yet, so he would not go into detail, but that a decision should be known in the next two months. The goal is to have the new houses built in the new location within two years, he added.
He said preliminary estimates showed that at least 90% of the residents were in favour of this solution, as their homes had been flooded four times since 1990.