Aleksandar Anđelković, member of the Kreni-promeni movement and assistant professor of the Faculty of Forestry at the University of Belgrade, warned that the main cause is not just the amount of rain, but a combination of outdated infrastructure and excessive urbanization, the movement announced.
"Belgrade currently does not have an adequate stormwater protection system. Because of the sewerage networks and excessive concreting, its key thoroughfares turn into impassable torrents after every heavy downpour," Anđelković said.
According to him, due to the increasing number of impervious surfaces, the city has lost its ability to naturally absorb precipitation.
"Due to excessive urbanization, there are not enough natural absorbent surfaces in the city, so more than 90 percent of the rain flows down the streets. The existing rain sewers are not designed for such a percentage of runoff, and they are also poorly maintained," he pointed out.
Andjelković said that climate changes further aggravate the situation, stating that with the increase in summer temperatures, the air retains about seven percent more water vapor for every degree Celsius.
"This gives storm systems significantly more energy, so in one downpour, up to 150 percent of the average monthly amount of rain can fall," Anđelković said.
Mass construction and climate
He added that climate models predict that the share of extreme precipitation in Serbia will increase to more than six percent of total precipitation by the end of the decade, which is almost three times more than in the middle of the last century, when that share was 2,4 percent.
"Due to massive construction and asphalt, even 90 percent of the water has nowhere to flow naturally, while construction waste, mud and leaves further block the flow through the system, which was built according to outdated standards," said Anđelković.
Speaking about possible solutions, Anđelković believes that there are measures that can be implemented relatively quickly and without multi-year infrastructure works.
As the first measure, he mentioned the installation of smart sensors in drains and manholes so that communal services can receive preventive information about the blockage of the system. The second measure involves urgent cleaning and dredging of the melioration canals on the left bank of the Danube so that they can receive large amounts of stormwater.
The third recommendation refers to the mandatory application of permeable surfaces in new open parking lots, the fourth is the procurement of mobile retention tanks - temporary above-ground reservoirs and dams that would temporarily retain water on the edges of the most critical roads during heavy rainfall, and the fifth is the formation of rain gardens.
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