Belgrade, 2014
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Government of the Republic of Serbia has conducted a post-disaster needs assessment after the floods and landslides that occurred at the end of May 2014. The European Union, the United Nations and the World Bank – on the basis of an inter-agency agreement subscribed in 2008 – provided financial and expert support to conduct the assessment.
The assessment enabled to estimate disaster effects – damages and losses – and impacts as well as the financial requirements to undertake recovery and reconstruction. More than 14 sectors of social and economic activity and cross-cutting issues were analysed during the assessment. The process of assessment was initiated on 9 June and was completed by July 10, 2014, thus lasting a total of 5 weeks.
Assessment methodology
The methodology for assessment that was utilised involves collecting available secondary information from different Government and private sources, verified and supplemented by field visits by the assessment teams, to estimate the value and extent of physical assets destroyed and the changes in production flows of all affected activities. A total of 24 municipalities were included in the assessment, which represent the most affected geopolitical subdivisions, as defined by the Government and extrapolations were later on conducted to expand the estimations to other, less affected localities. In addition to the field visits, special sample surveys of formal and informal industrial and commercial establishments were conducted to obtain first-hand information on damage, losses and needs, as well as to estimate the possible impact of the disaster on livelihoods, employment and income losses of the labour force.
Assessment of disaster effects
The assessment revealed that the total effects of the disaster in the 24 affected municipalities amounts to EUR 1,525 million, of which EUR 885 million (57% of the total effects) represent the value of destroyed physical assets, and EUR 640 million (43% of the total) refer to losses in production (See Table ES-1). When considering the additional affected municipalities, the total value of disaster effects would rise to EUR 1.7 billion.
It was found that total disaster effects were concentrated mostly in productive activities (EUR 1,070 million and 70% of the total), social services (EUR 242 million and 16%), and infrastructure (EUR 192 million and 12%); thus, disaster impact was highest in terms of production and access to social services, than in regard to destruction of infrastructures. In regard to individual sectors of economic and social activity, the most affected sector was the one of mining/energy (EUR 494 million and 32% of the total), followed by housing (EUR 231 million and 15%), agriculture (EUR 228 million and 15%), trade (EUR 225 million and 15%) and transport (EUR 167 million and 11%).