Emergency team adopts further measures to prevent consequences of adverse weather

BELGRADE - Serbia's Emergency Response Team reviewed on Friday the current hydrological and meteorological situation, as well as the latest information on wildfires in Serbia, at a session also attended by PM Djuro Macut, and adopted additional measures to prevent the consequences of adverse weather conditions.

"Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Ivica Dacic, who is also Commander of the Team, stressed that extremely harmful consequences of the heatwave had been prevented," a government statement said.

"It was also noted that electricity generation remains stable and that, despite high consumption, electricity supplies to the population are uninterrupted. The supply of oil derivatives is also stable.

Nine fires are currently active, with more than 230 members of the Emergency Situations Sector of the Serbian Ministry of the Interior and five helicopters engaged in firefighting operations.

The Team tasked the ministries, special organisations, public enterprises and other institutions represented on the Team with analysing the consequences and the current situation, identifying the problems and challenges observed and proposing systemic and strategic measures aimed at addressing these issues in the long term, reducing risks and increasing the resilience of the system to future extreme conditions.

The Team also recommended that the Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Armed Forces, within their respective purviews and available capacities, deploy human, material and technical resources, as well as other resources, to provide support and mitigate the consequences of the prolonged dry period, adverse hydrological conditions and the increased risk of wildfires breaking out and spreading in open areas.

The public utility company Srbijavode d o o and other legal entities with appropriate resources were instructed to make all available human, material and technical capacities available to the Emergency Situations Sector," it also said.