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“With no warning, the water came at 5am…”
For Zeljko Cejic, an engineer in Banja Luka, the lack of advance notice meant there was no time to plan. His wife Natasa, daughter Sofia (then 6) and son Phillip (3 months) escaped through Sofia’s bedroom window.“My uncle came and carried me. I remember the water was really dirty and I did not want to drop in because I was afraid I would disappear,” Sophia remembers.
The 2014 flooding and landslides in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) affected more than a million people. Twenty-five people lost their lives. Some 75,000 homes were affected, including 25,000 that were severely damaged or destroyed. The flooding displaced 90,000 people, and over 3,000 landslides were recorded. Officials feared that the damage from the extreme weather could ‘exceed that caused by the entire Balkan conflict.’
Some of the hardest hit areas were in the Vrbas River basin. The large rural population is made up of the poorest and most vulnerable communities in BiH, including war returnees and displaced people.
In general, Bosnia and Herzegovina is highly exposed to the impacts of climate change, in particular, the increasing frequency and magnitude of flooding from its major rivers. Flooding and landslides have tripled in frequency in the last decade, damaging human life and eroding socio-economic gains. The damage is made worse by the country’s limited capacity to anticipate and respond.
Understanding that advanced warning saves lives and limits economic losses, the flood management project in Vrbas River basin is intended to establish a network of hydro-meteorological stations. These stations form the basis for a flood forecasting and early warning system in the Vrbas River basin. With 20 rainfall, two meteorological and six hydrological measuring stations, the system takes automatic measurements of water level and discharge, rainfall and other key data – all in real time.
River basins know no administrative boundaries.
The Vrbas River basin, including the river and its tributaries, weaves through BiH’s two political entities, one canton and 28 municipalities. To be effective, early warning systems and disaster response plans require cooperation among various administrations and different levels of government.
The project is working to ensure that there is a cohesive system in place across the municipalities and entities that make up BiH. This is especially important in a country still working to rebuild and repair relationships in the post-conflict landscape.
For Zeljko, as he points out the water line on the side of his house, the 2014 floods seem like a surreal memory. It has taken one and half years for the family to rebuild and begin to recover. They had to discard furniture, electronics, books, photos and personal effects. Their pictures and books are what they miss the most. By improving flood forecasting and early warning systems, the project is working to ensure that the governments of BiH and the communities of the Vrbas River basin have climate resilient flood management systems. The real result is protecting families and giving them confidence that future hazards won’t arrive without warning. For more information on the project, please visit the UNDP project profiles: here and here.
© 2026 United Nations Development Programme
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