Right at the very start of the coronavirus crisis, the Croatian capital of Zagreb was hit by an earthquake which caused devastating damages to the city. Since then, local and national authorities have been scrambling to provide accommodations and to help as many people as possible – all the while dealing with the extraordinary circumstances brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
National authorities stepping in to help the city
In the last week of July, the Croatian parliament adopted a bill submitted by the government that would pave the way for Zagreb’s recovery. The proposal stipulates that national authorities will finance 60% of the capital’s reconstruction efforts, while the rest will be split between the city’s budget and the owners of the damaged buildings. A special reconstruction fund will also be set up in order to monitor and oversee the way the money is spent and to raise funding for those who are affected.
In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, national authorities quickly went about providing emergency relief in the form of HRK 100 billion, following a revision of the country’s 2020 budget. The total estimated cost for repairing the damages, however, is somewhere around 11.5 billion euros. Recovery efforts themselves will take at the very least 10 years before restoring Zagreb to its former beauty.
Yet the government and local officials aren’t planning to simply rebuild everything as it was before. Instead, through their substantial investments, they want to make Zagreb more resilient to future crises and to modernize it in a way that might have been impossible before the earthquake hit.
Another side benefit of the tragic ordeal is the fact that it will stimulate economic activity in the city. The investment and financial support provided by the government will create more jobs and will aid Zagreb in its post-corona economic recovery.
Source: TheMayor.EU
