Google Cloud Speech-to-Text API (Chirp) + Gemini 2.5 Flash Non-Thinking. Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:08:17Sarajevo, unfortunately, still doesn't have complete answers to questions
00:08:21when the water supply will be fully normalized.
00:08:24The rains have come, the droughts, in a way, are still here for us,
00:08:27reductions have not stopped. The director of ViK explains the problem
00:08:31with slow recovery of water sources and an outdated network, while
00:08:34experts warn about decades of poor
00:08:37management and huge water losses, as well as
00:08:41endangered water protection zones and a lack of long-term
00:08:44strategy. Whose responsibility is it,
00:08:48why are the problems that are known, actually
00:08:52it seems, only solved when citizens directly
00:08:55feel the problem, how is everything communicated
00:08:58and what is adequate and what can be an adequate
00:09:02strategy, all of us who really feel the problem,
00:09:05we are actually talking about that in the continuation, about that
00:09:08way out of the situation, with us is the relevant minister Mladen.
00:09:12Djurević, good morning and thank you very much for being here, good
00:09:15morning, it's quite clear and it's
00:09:19not superfluous to mention that the problem
00:09:22is decades old, so somehow maybe even a complete ignorance of everything
00:09:26that is happening underground, you
00:09:29have been a minister only since 2025,
00:09:31it's worth emphasizing, so you haven't had a full four years
00:09:35of mandate to deal with these issues, but
00:09:39they were an important part of your exposé. That
00:09:43certainly, when you remember the situation, as you saw it
00:09:46then, so with water supply and what we have
00:09:49now, many will say, maybe somehow the
00:09:52most direct crisis, what would you say has been
00:09:55done, and what has been missed?
00:09:58Well, first of all, I would like to say very clearly that regardless
00:10:02of the fact that it is, what you emphasized in your introductory
00:10:06speech is completely correct, I have no intention
00:10:08of avoiding responsibility or of
00:10:12excusing myself, and I even have no intention of determining who
00:10:15is responsible for such a state of affairs, what
00:10:19interests me is to take measures to overcome this
00:10:22situation as soon as possible.
00:10:25Um, if in October there are
00:10:29significant changes,
00:10:32more precisely, if October is rainy, we can
00:10:35expect that the situation would be resolved in November
00:10:38eventually, but it would be resolved for three or four months
00:10:42then we would have that problem again, uh,
00:10:45you are absolutely right, this this issue was
00:10:48ignored until a couple of years ago, when one
00:10:52of the governments, I don't even know which one, in 2019, ...
00:10:55in 2017 or 2019 took out a loan of 50
00:10:59million euros which is being used for the rehabilitation of the water supply and
00:11:02sewerage network. If
00:11:05that hadn't been done, I think that
00:11:08the citizens of Sarajevo Canton would have
00:11:12not just a few hours in the night
00:11:15times, but generally. What
00:11:18interests me is, I mean, if
00:11:22citizens need to know the situation. "Ten years ago,
00:11:25if you remember, then we had reductions for two or three years
00:11:29except for two or three months in the winter
00:11:33months throughout the entire year, at that time the
00:11:36amount of water that the water supply system operated with was about
00:11:393,300 cubic meters per hour,
00:11:42now that amount is 2,500
00:11:46meters, meaning we have an exceptionally dry
00:11:49year which is a problem that exists
00:11:52with dry and non-dry years to the end,
00:11:56meaning the period from April is mm
00:11:59so dry that meteorologists say it has
00:12:02the strength of a natural disaster,
00:12:05however, I am not happy
00:12:08that I am even talking about that situation that a canton
00:12:12or the capital of a state was not able to solve
00:12:15the issue that one of the basic
00:12:19needs of citizens is not being questioned, about which
00:12:23I am not discussing, I have... we have a situation in Sarajevo, in the canton there are over
00:12:271500 km of water supply network,
00:12:30I'm talking only about the network managed by the waterworks, because there are waterworks in
00:12:34two municipalities managed by two other companies,
00:12:38municipal companies, and there is a whole series of, let's say,
00:12:42private or local water sources where the situation
00:12:45is catastrophic and of those
00:12:491500 km,
00:12:52half of it, over 700 km... is in a state of decay,
00:12:56mhm, mm, according to
00:12:59the most, let's say, most optimistic
00:13:03predictions, the cost of reconstructing one kilometer is about one
00:13:07million convertible marks, meaning at this moment we need
00:13:11750 million for the reconstruction of only the water supply network and
00:13:14plus approximately a little less than that, about 700 million for
00:13:17the sewerage network. Furthermore, this water supply system was
00:13:21built with, at that time, truly, this.
00:13:26application of top principles that existed then, but it was built
00:13:30in such a way that we have two main sources, or rather two
00:13:33main reservoirs are Mojmilo and
00:13:37this Kobilja Glava, and when one of
00:13:41them has problems or cannot get water, then we have
00:13:44then one half of the city doesn't have it, when it's the second, then the other half doesn't have it,
00:13:48meaning something needs to be done that will enable
00:13:51the connection of those, uh, springs mm.
00:13:55"We also have certain water sources, such as Vrelo
00:13:59Moščanica, it is completely autonomous and it supplies only that one part of the city,
00:14:02and everyone who is there knows
00:14:06that, that is approximately the Faletići part of Vratnik,
00:14:10Ophodža, who have big problems,
00:14:13but thanks to the human efforts of the employees
00:14:16of ViK, they still have water. A similar
00:14:20situation is with the Jahorina well, which
00:14:23supplies this left
00:14:27hillside, the hillside parts on the left side of the Miljacka, those are
00:14:30Jerčedoli and Pogled, where
00:14:33the situation is also catastrophic, and there is no
00:14:37way for them to be supplied now from the main spring from
00:14:40this Butila, so
00:14:43that situation must be resolved, although I say
00:14:46the situation is much better than what we had, so now we have
00:14:502,500 cubic meters, we had 3,300, then
00:14:54the situation was... worse, it's obvious that the people from
00:14:57the waterworks have become more skilled or are approaching
00:15:01the problem more seriously, so the problem is
00:15:04still smaller than it was.
00:15:07It depends on who answers the question. Citizens of certain
00:15:11settlements say that yes, they have certainly been suffering for years, but that they
00:15:14don't remember a situation like this. You say
00:15:18that partly responsible for that is the summer
00:15:21we had, a summer that
00:15:24was. the situation was. I will ask you to somehow use this entire
00:15:28overture and overview of the situation you have given us
00:15:31precisely for the overture of everything that still needs
00:15:35to be clarified. Summer is not to blame, we must not... allow
00:15:38climatic conditions to dictate whether citizens
00:15:41will have water or not. I am just saying that the situation happened as
00:15:45it happened, that it worsens the situation, but
00:15:48besides that, whatever the situation, we must
00:15:52provide water to the citizens, we must bring water from Crna Rijeka from
00:15:55Trnovo, that is a project,
00:15:58a millennial project for Sarajevo Canton, if we don't
00:16:02start working on it now,
00:16:04simply in eight years we can expect Sarajevo to be
00:16:08exposed to daily hours-long water
00:16:11reductions. That is a project that costs approximately two
00:16:15billion convertible marks, but if
00:16:19we want to have water, then we must bring that water, the only way we can
00:16:23bring it is from the area of Trnovo from the spring Crna, Crna
00:16:26Rijeka, well, but you say if we don't start now,
00:16:30then we are in danger of serious, that's right, in
00:16:33what phase is it, that's no longer
00:16:36my. jurisdiction, that's the jurisdiction of the Ministry of
00:16:39Economy which deals with
00:16:42water supply, but I think
00:16:45that, given that I have tried to initiate these
00:16:49things, uh, as far as I know, it hasn't, it hasn't even
00:16:53started, but it must start with the development of the project,
00:16:57securing money, a huge amount is in
00:17:01question, but simply a way must be found how to do it, I can
00:17:04talk about the things that I can... do and need
00:17:08to do and which I have already started, mhm, you basically
00:17:12started with your responsibility, you said
00:17:15I take it,
00:17:19I will work on everything that needs to be done so that as
00:17:22I said, I don't want to avoid irresponsibility, that's not
00:17:26the goal, someone who sits in this
00:17:29position absolutely cannot say that it doesn't concern him, regardless
00:17:33of whether he's been here for a few months or, I don't know, how long,
00:17:36mhm? But the fact that
00:17:39currently a project of eight is actually a project of
00:17:4350 million euros, now it's
00:17:46the third phase of that project
00:17:50approximately eight, about 8 million
00:17:52euros, uh, of which five,
00:17:565.5 million is a loan,
00:17:59the remaining part 2.5-3 million is this grant, mm,
00:18:03where the water supply network is being rehabilitated, we have a situation where the losses in
00:18:07the water supply network are 71%,
00:18:10probably not in the water supply network so many percent, some percentage falls
00:18:14on losses through, let's say,
00:18:17accounting that people who do not pay private and
00:18:20legal entities, but here, let's say it's
00:18:2365% of loss, every loss in every
00:18:27city in the world over 30% is
00:18:29a disaster, now imagine if you have 750
00:18:32km of destroyed, ruined
00:18:35network, how will you? overcome that loss, meaning
00:18:38the first thing is we must work on reducing
00:18:41that loss through the rehabilitation of the water supply
00:18:44network, what was done right after
00:18:4730 years ago, is it 25, 30 years ago,
00:18:51it's already ripe for this
00:18:53reconstruction, and we simply must
00:18:57get to a situation where 5% of the
00:19:00water supply and sewage network annually
00:19:03we must, we must renew. We have huge pipes that are, I don't know.
00:19:07the diameter of this room where there is
00:19:10only the upper part, the lower part doesn't exist at all, meaning what the earth
00:19:14absorbs, it absorbs, what it doesn't absorb, that goes further to the citizens,
00:19:17citizens must know that and must know that the situation will not be resolved
00:19:21in a month or two or three, regardless of who is in
00:19:24power, mhm, you said correctly that for decades nothing
00:19:28was attempted, meaning this
00:19:31government, of which I was not a member then, secured that
00:19:35loan, it is working, I had meetings last
00:19:38week with the director of the EBRD
00:19:42and we talked about taking out a loan of
00:19:45120 million euros
00:19:48for the rehabilitation of the network, and
00:19:52uh, that's what I'm specifically working on. Does such a ViK
00:19:55as it is enjoy your full trust?
00:19:58Well, first of all, I don't know, but
00:20:02well, that's your impression, I was not at all
00:20:05benevolent towards ViK.
00:20:09"Uh, and when I spoke, I spoke about the employees in
00:20:11ViK, uh, I didn't speak about the director and
00:20:15the management, and all those questions you mentioned,
00:20:19these are questions they need to answer, but I know for sure, I know
00:20:22for sure that they are putting in immense
00:20:25efforts, am I satisfied with that, I am not, but
00:20:29what, what to do, what to do, now,
00:20:33let's take the situation where we replace the management and put in, will the situation
00:20:36be?". better even by an iota?
00:20:40No, it won't. Of course the situation is not good. I would be,
00:20:43for example, much, much more drastic in my responses than the
00:20:47citizens. I know the situation with that. "I see myself as
00:20:50both a minister and a citizen of Sarajevo, having the situation I
00:20:54have. As for what is up to me, believe me, I am
00:20:58undertaking it. Uh, it's not a question of one
00:21:01person, it's not a question of ViK, it's a question that
00:21:05all citizens must know, now we will come to
00:21:08the situation where we
00:21:10agree that we must invest those funds. Where will those
00:21:14funds come from? From the citizens, from the citizens. Now, when you raise
00:21:18four marks for citizens,
00:21:21monthly, to pay for reconstruction, everyone will
00:21:24complain, well, but given the
00:21:27situation, it's quite clear, well, I know, but will we solve that
00:21:31issue or will we not solve it, who will give us
00:21:344 billion just like that, nobody will give
00:21:38us, especially when we tell them we will pay more expensive, but
00:21:41let the water flow longer from the tap so it's not yellow, well I'm not letting it flow and you must know that, but
00:21:45you must know that the ministry, not just mine, but those are
00:21:48companies that are... public companies are completely autonomous,
00:21:52the minister neither appoints nor dismisses the management,
00:21:55nor can he even initiate or propose or even
00:21:58initiate, the minister has no role,
00:22:02you ask in your question as if I can know how many
00:22:05sick leaves there are in ViK, well,
00:22:08it's in your department, this public utility company, I suppose
00:22:12we need to ask someone, and we pay those we
00:22:16ask, thank you very much for being a part of the new day, we must move on, we have run out of time...
00:30:09Germany, how to protect critical infrastructure?
00:30:13Canada: dream marriage with the European Union?
00:30:16France, the difficult life of the homeless in Paris.
00:30:31Greetings. Sabotage of power lines, arson
00:30:35at railway switches, suspicious drones above military
00:30:39bases. Germany has faced a sharp increase in attacks on
00:30:42critical infrastructure in recent
00:30:45months. Since the beginning of this year, authorities have
00:30:48recorded more than 160 cases of suspected
00:30:53protect and how to protect critical
00:30:57infrastructure, who will?