Among numerous EU Member States’ teams sent to Serbia to help flood fighting and join relief efforts, there are water purification units from France and Germany that provide drinking water to inhabitants of Svilajnac, Ćuprija and Obrenovac.
French soldier in Svilajnac, giving bags with drinking water to a passerby in car
“Water! Drinking water!” a smiling lad, dressed in a navy blue uniform, shouts in Serbian with a clear French accent, offering water bags to passers-by, cyclists and drivers in the St. Sava street in the centre of Svilajnac.
Emanuel Parent is a member of the French team engaged in providing technical and drinking water to residents of this town since 24 May. In a week, he also learnt how to say “hello” and “thank you” in Serbian.
“People are very kind, they’re pleased that we’re providing them with water. Many of them speak some French and often stop by just to say hello,” he says smiling, after handing two water bags over to a driver through a car window.
Emanuel Parent delivers drinking water to Svilajnac’s inhabitants
Stationed in Brignoles near Marseilles in the south of France, the Seventh training and intervention civil protection unit of the French Army had sent a total of 44 members to Serbia, out of which 21 are deployed in Svilajnac, 19 in Ćuprija, whereas the rest of them have joined the Belgrade-based EU Civil Protection Team and are engaged in providing logistics and coordinating assistance and activities of the EU Member States teams’, sent to Serbia the moment it had requested assistance.
“We are trained to get going and help where needed within three hours after being alarmed. Therefore we drove this 1,500 km to Serbia for 36 hours, carrying all the equipment,” says Major Bertrand Legrand in charge with coordination of both parts of the water purification team. France sent to Serbia a total of 89 rescuers, a number of rescue boats, high capacity pumps and this water purification unit.
“Our teams came to Svilajnac and Ćuprija following the estimate, done jointly with Serbian authorities, which showed that these were high-priority spots for drinking water provision. “We take water from the local water supply system, filtrate it, add chlorin and deliver it to citizens,” says Legrand.
“Right after the arrival we set up the filters, rubber water tanks, water packing machines, and water quality testing laboratory,” the Major added.
The team works in shifts, including overnight, producing some 32,000 litres of water, testing its safety every two hours, and distributing it in four ways. “The water is packed in one-litre bags,” Major Legrand says, pointing to the water packing machine set up in one of the three tents where the team operates.
French soldiers in Svilajnac at the machine that is packing drinking water in one-liter plastic bags
“We have a truck with a water tank that delivers water to nearby villages. We also fill up the Serbian Armed Forces’ tanks, whereas citizens can come and pour water into their bottles and canisters on one of the taps installed here in the downtown,” he said.
Citizens of Svilajnac responded rather positively to the assistance provided. According to French rescuers, not a day goes by without someone dropping by to bring food, ask whether the team needs anything, or just to say hello. “A woman even treated us to a roast pig,” says Major Legrand.
“These boys are wonderful and we appreciate them being here. I personally prefer their water to the one we’ve had before the floods,” says 40-year old Marina Đorđević, who came on a bicycle to pick up her daily water allowance.
“All is well when good people are around,” says 78-year old Mirko Grujin, who took two water bags from the soldiers, and put them in his bicycle basket. “I don’t know what we’d do if it weren’t for them,” he says smiling and waves greeting the soldier.
The communication has been facilitated as many people speak French, thanks to their immigrant community of almost 7,000 people in France, says Major Legrand.
“We are well accepted by the people. They even come to our nurse that helps the team and ask for bandages for cuts, and things like that”, he says.
According to Zlatana Filipović, technologist at the “Morava” utility company in Svilajnac, who provides logistics support to the French team, the cooperation runs smoothly.
Major Bertrand Legrand coordinates water purification unit in Svilajnac and Ćuprija
Their swift and timely assistance was valuable at the moment when 80% of 3,200 households in the town were flooded and 10,000 inhabitants were left without safe water. “Shortly after the arrival, they started producing drinking water, which was of extreme importance to these people who were left with practically nothing,” says Filipović.
The team will stay in Serbia as long as they are needed, Major Legrand said. The local water supply network is expected to be disinfected this week and health safety tests need to be done afterwards.
“Unless we are sure that the citizens of Svilajnac and Ćuprija are provided with safe drinking water, we will not consider our mission completed,” says Legrand.
“German quality” water in Obrenovac
In Obrenovac, at the very end of the Zabrežje settlement, 11-member civil protection team from Germany has been purifying water and supplying as many as 32,000 inhabitants with drinking water.
German water purification unit is settled next to Sava River in Zabrežje, suburb of Obrenovac
“Capacity of our unit is half a million litres of water per day, but in line with the needs of Obrenovac, we are currently producing 100,000 litres,” says Silvio Volkmann, leader of the German team that arrived in Serbia on 26 May.
Water from the Sava River is being purified through several filters, chlorinated, and placed into 10 blue rubber tanks, each with capacity of 10,000 litres. From there it is being delivered to citizens of Obrenovac in cisterns or one of the ten 1,000 litre-capacity reservoirs, deployed throughout the town, where citizens can fill up their bottles and canisters.
Before it reaches citizens, the water undergoes at least three types of technical tests; several chemical, a biological, and a microbiological test.
Quality of purified water has been regularly controlled in this laboratory
Laboratory technician Christoph Winkler says he tests the water from the reservoirs at least once a day, whereas the tank water is tested more often, because water there could more likely change its composition.
“The doctor who assessed the water quality said this was high-quality water, German quality water,” says Volkmann smiling, but not without pride.
German unit’s team leader Silvio Volkmann showing how microbiological tests of purified water are being carried out
German team consists of volunteers from across the country. In their everyday lives its members do completely different jobs. Volkmann is a fire-fighter, Winkler is a forester; almost every team member’s occupation is different. They are a part of the 1,000-member German civil protection international intervention unit, that is directed by German Government to critical areas around the world, whenever and wherever the assistance is needed. After the mission is completed, they go back home to their everyday jobs.
German Federal Agency for Technical Relief has sent a water purification unit to Serbia. It provides drinking water for the entire population of Obrenovac
Volkmann says his previous mission was in the Philippines in December. He is for the first time in Serbia.
The water purification team will stay in Obrenovac as long as the local waterworks is not operable and cannot produce safe water.
“We are told it takes up to two months until all the wells are cleaned. This means our team would probably stay here for two more months. Crews will probably be changed every couple of weeks, but the equipment remains here and continues producing drinking water for citizens of Obrenovac,” says Volkmann.
