Source: Esri, DigitalGlobe, GeoEye, Earthstar Geographics, CNES/Airbus DS, USDA, USGS, AEX, Getmapping, Aerogrid, IGN, IGP, swisstopo, and the GIS User Community, Esri, HERE, DeLorme, TomTom, MapmyIndia, © OpenStreetMapcontributors, and the GIS user community

0 10 20 30 40 505KilometersÜ

AFTER THE FLOOD: THE BALKAN WAR RESURFACEDAFTER THE FLOOD: THE BALKAN WAR RESURFACED

Esri, HERE, DeLorme, MapmyIndia, ©OpenStreetMap contributors, and the GIS usercommunity

Active MinefieldsResidential Areas

) Areas Of Interest Flooding (4'-16')Flooding (< 4')

Author: Kevin McMahon Date: 3/13/2015Coordinate System: WGS 1984 Web MercatorProjection: Mercator Auxiliary SphereSources:European CommissionInternational Red CrossNASA Near Earth ObservatoryBosnia-Herzegovina Mine Action CenterUnited Nations Office For Outer Space Affairs

During the Balkan War (1992-1996) an estim ated 4 m illion land m ines were p laced throughout the form er Yugoslav Rep ublic – the m ajority of which were d isp ersed in Bosnia-Herzegovina for the p ur p ose of ethnic cleansing. 40,000 m inefield s covered 12,000km 2 (20% of the country) m aking it one of the m ost m ine contam inated countries in the world .

By 2014, the rem aining m inefield s still covered 1,800km 2, m ostly in the Brcko d istrict and along the Sava and Bosna rivers. The situation however turned catastrop hic in m id -May, when the region received four m onths’ worth of rain in just three d ays, causing the worst flood ing in over a century and 2,100 land slid es.

As of January 2014, ap p roxim ately 120,000 active land m ines still rem ain in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Most have been id entified and m arked off. 8,000 civilians are still unaccounted for since the war’s end . Mass graves containing as m any as 400 bod ies have been d iscovered as late as 2013. Half of all p ost-war land m ine casualties are child ren. As a result all p rim ary school stud ents attend m and atory m ine-awareness classes. May 13th – 15th 2014, Bosnia-Herzegovina receives an unp reced ented four m onths’ worth of rain, causing the worst flood ing in 120 years. More than 1,000,000 p eop le (alm ost a q uarter of the p op ulation) are forced to evacuate as flood waters reach as high as 16 feet. 90% of the rem aining m inefield s in Bosnia-Herzegovina are located in flood zones throughout the country. Dem ining exp erts p lace the num ber of land m ines swep t away by flood waters and land slid es at 90,000 – 100,000. As flood waters reced e, land m ines have washed up in p eop le’s yard s, utility p lants and farm s, contam inating areas that were once cleared . June 2014, as rebuild ing and recovery efforts get und erway, skeletal rem ains and m ass graves unearthed by the flood ing are d iscovered . Dem ining team s begin the p ainstaking task of relocating the m issing land m ines before areas can be cleared for reconstruction. Layers of d ebris from land slid es and flood ing can only be cleared by hand 1m at a tim e after being swep t w ith m etal d etectors.