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potential vectors of dengue fever and Chikungunya
fever: the Asian tiger mosquito (A. albopictus)
(Caminade
et al.
, 2012). Such conditions could
promote the spread of the mosquito, which is
currently found in most of Albania and Montenegro,
and north-western areas of Serbia and Bosnia and
Herzegovina, while local transmission of dengue
in Europe was first reported in Croatia and France
in 2010 (WHO, 2014b). There also appears to
be a significant risk of the spread of tick-borne
encephalitis (TBE) in the Western Balkans under
future warming (Lindquist & Vapalahti, 2008).
Landmines pose a constant risk to humanpopulations
in some areas. Bosnia and Herzegovina has one of
the most severe landmine problems in the world,
with the majority concentrated in mountainous and
forest areas, although lowland agricultural areas
are also affected. Of the landmines laid during the
1992 to 1995 war, an estimated 120,000 landmines
and un-exploded ordnance (UXOs) remain in the
ground and 2.3 per cent of the total country is still
considered suspect (BHMAC, 2015). With regards
to landmines and climate change, recent flooding
events highlight the key risks to human health. Many
of the mines are made of plastic and can easily be
shifted by the floodwaters. Following the floods in
May 2015, one mine exploded in the Brčko district
during clean-up operations. Residents within Bosnia
and Herzegovina and Serbia reported mine sightings.
Many of the warning signs delineating mine fields
were also damaged and needed to be repaired
(ReliefWeb, 2014).
Naturally-occurring flooding can also prove
challenging for the regular identification and
updating of landmine maps, such as is the case
within Livno Polje (Bosnia and Herzegovina) where
peatlands are regular flooded (Elmedina Krilasevic,
personal communication, 2015).
The risk of riverine floods is expected to increase
in the future in the Western Balkans (World Bank,
2014), where recent events have demonstrated the
vulnerability of human populations to floods. The
equivalent of two months’ rainfall arrived in just
three days in 2014, causing extreme floods (the worst
in 120 years for Serbia), killing 51 people andmaking
an additional 31,000 homeless. Fifty-one thousand
jobs were temporarily lost, and an estimated 125,000
people were driven below the poverty line. Overall,
an estimated 1.6million people were affected (United
Nations Serbia
et al.
, 2014).
The flooding triggered 2,100 landslides in Bosnia
and Herzegovina and 1,000 in Serbia. Flooding and
Flooding in Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2014:
Impacts for humans, agriculture and energy
landslides are thought to have exposed landmines
from the 1990s war and toppled warning signs,
prompting fears of mines being transported far
downstream.
The floods were a disaster for agricultural
production. An estimated 80,000 hectares of arable
land was flooded, damaging cereal crops, soybeans
and sunflowers as well as horticultural crops.
Infrastructures, processing facilities and farm
equipment were also affected.
In addition, the flooding disrupted power supplies
and led to a reported 40 per cent reduction in
Serbia’s electricity production (Word Bank, 2014).
Flooding from the Sava River, Serbia