Next year, all agricultural areas will be demined, the entire country by 2026.

In the area of eight Croatian counties, or 55 cities and municipalities, there are still 385.9 square kilometers of mine-suspected areas, and it is planned that demining will be completed by 2026, “perhaps even earlier,” while agricultural land will be fully demined next year, said Zdravko Modrušan, director of the Croatian Mine Action Centre, today in Sisak during the signing of the contract for the demining of agricultural land in the Sisak-Moslavina County, in Dvor and Sunja.

“Thanks to continuous funding from EU funds, we are working calmly and systematically, with safety being our top priority. We have not recorded a single incident in the past two years. For example, we found 69 ‘promovki’ on Kapela, and previously, 595 people were affected by those mines, of which 203 were fatal,” said Modrušan.

>>>For demining, 40 million kuna is needed monthly

He emphasized that the demining of agricultural land is underway, which will be completed next year, while at the same time, demanding demining of forest land is also being carried out.

The Brod-Posavina County has been fully demined, and we continue the removal of mines from agricultural land in Sisak-Moslavina, and then in Lika-Senj County, said Modrušan.

He added that the dynamics of demining depend on the influx of funds, so given that there is enough capacity for demining in Croatia, the work could be completed even before 2026, by which time an extension of the deadline has been requested.

The director of HCR, Sisak-Moslavina County Prefect Ivo Žinić, and representatives of demining companies “Istraživač”, “Titan”, and COR signed a contract for the third and final phase of demining agricultural land in Sisak-Moslavina County, which is financed with 13 million kuna from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development.

>>>For demining 340 hectares of forest, 40 million kuna is needed

The contracts of the third phase relate to agricultural areas in the settlement of Kobiljak and the settlements of Ostojići and Gornji Žirovac in the municipality of Dvor, and agricultural areas near the settlements of Gradusa Posavska and Brđani Cesta in the municipality of Sunja. Three more similar contracts will be signed later, which will complete the demining of agricultural land in that county.

As Prefect Žinić said, after that, there will still be 62.4 square kilometers of forest area left to be demined. In the previous two phases, as he added, more than 20 square kilometers have been demined, without a single incident.