Minister Ćorić Opens the Third Phase of the Kupa Embankment Construction in Karlovac

With an investment from Hrvatske vode of 3.5 million kuna, the third phase of the construction of the left bank embankment of the Kupa River upstream from Karlovac to Brodarci has continued today. This involves a two-kilometer section, which will continue from the already constructed concrete wall to the settlement of Kaštel in the form of an earthen embankment of varying heights, averaging one meter up to three meters at the highest point, extending to the settlement of Donje Pokuplje.

The construction of the flood defense system for Karlovac and Sisak-Moslavina counties, said Đuroković, will cost around 900 million kuna, of which 670 million kuna pertains to Karlovac County, and as much as 85 percent of these costs can, added Đuroković, be co-financed from EU funds.

However, there is not much time for that, considering that Croatia must utilize these EU funds by the end of 2023, so in this context, today the Minister of Environment and Energy Tomislav Ćorić announced the adoption of the “Law on Emergency Flood Defense along the Kupa River Basin,” and stated that the proposal will go to the Government and Parliament immediately in the fall.

>>>With investments of around 670 million kuna, Karlovac should be safe from floods by the end of 2023

– This is a question, considering that it encompasses the protection of Karlovac, Sisak-Moslavina, and part of Zagreb County and the damage caused by floods, emphasized Minister Ćorić, as a priority in the flood defense concept at the national level.

– In this area, we have 15,000 cadastral parcels and properties that must be expropriated and property-legal relations resolved in order for the project to develop at the planned pace. This was an alarm for us in the Ministry to approach finding an urgent solution to this issue, so that we can simultaneously protect the population along the Kupa from floods as soon as possible, said Ćorić.

Ćorić asserts that this law will enable a significant acceleration of all administrative-bureaucratic procedures for obtaining building permits, allowing construction operations to promptly act in the field after tenders are conducted, in order to utilize the EU funds available to Croatia for this purpose until 2023.

>>>The state humiliates the victims of fires and floods

In the final phase, said Đuroković, the embankment will connect with the mouth of the Kupa River and the drainage canal Kupa-Kupa, which will only enter full function by deepening its connection with the Kupa. Namely, this 22-kilometer-long canal will then have its function of diverting the water wave into the Kupčina retention, for which capacity must be ensured, said the General Director of Hrvatske vode Zoran Đuroković, of at least 120 million cubic meters.

In response to a journalist’s question about whether various legal “tails” might arise regarding such an “emergency” law, including the question of examining the constitutionality of such a law that first allows machines to enter possession and then proceeds to legalize the expropriation process, County Prefect Damir Jelić stated that he sees no reason why such a law would not pass, because, he said, “if it passed in Gunja, why wouldn’t it pass in Karlovac?”