Healthy drinking water for everybody

The City of Bijeljina is located at the north-eastern part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, around 10 kilometres from the border with the Republic of Serbia and around 25 kilometres from the border with the Republic of Croatia. As the centre of the county called Semberija, a very fruitful plain agricultural part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bijeljina is on the crossroad of paths to Croatia, Serbia and the internal and central parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina. According to the last public census from 2013, the City of Bijeljina has around 115.000 inhabitants and is the fifth city by size in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Through history, Bijeljina was under influence of different cultural, religious and political movements, while the most significant stamps on the current cultural life of the city were left by the Ottoman and the Austro-Hungarian empire. The historical architecture of the City is predominantly marked by these two empire influences. During the Austro-Hungarian empire, in 1891 a young public servant Johann Kaiser were permitted by the municipal government of that time to purchase seedlings that would be planted in an unused and mostly devastated urban area in the centre of Bijeljina and the idea of establishing a City park was born. After the plan for the future park had been made that looked alike parks in Austria, seedlings were purchased in Vienna and Pesta and the construction of the City Park started. After its construction and early challenges to bring the existence of a part closer to Bijeljina inhabitants, this place became the most favourite place of social gathering in the town. This remained until today, where most of the seedlings planted by Johann Kaiser still exist. The City park of Bijeljina is the central point and the green lungs of the city, where during spring, summer and autumn months Bijeljina's inhabitants, mostly families with young children spent their free time and enjoy the nature and fresh air in the centre of a busy City.  

In spite of the fact that the City authorities take care of the City Park, in particular in regard to the maintenance of the trees and green areas, there is still a lack of access to drinking water to a huge number of people that use the City Park during at least 8 months of the year. Although the city authorities invested funds in reconstructing walkways, lightening and other elements of the Park, a drinking water fountain was not planned to be constructed, while during hot spring and summer months, healthy drinking water is more than needed for the big number of Bijeljina's inhabitants who spend their free time in the only organized green area in the heart of the City. Few years ago, the Rotary Club Bijeljina started to plan a construction of a drinking water fountain in the City Park and initiated negotiation processes with the local authorities in regard to permissions, the basic project idea and the location where the fountain could be placed inside of the Park, In the beginning of 2018, the team of the RC Bijeljina, responsible for the planning of this particular project, led by the charter member, Mirsad Izic, a trained architecture succeeded to finalize all needed details with the local authorities and the architecture bureau of Mr. Izic designed the project for the drinking water fountain that will be placed in the very heart of the City park.  

The fountain will be placed in the central part of the park, id est where the two main working paths cross, what makes the fountain accessible from each part of the City Park. The fountain will be of 172 x 146 cm dimensions and cca 400 cm high placed on a fundament made of concrete with spirals of Inox tubes. The fountain is planned to be accessible for different target groups and those who are supposed to use the fresh drinking water, different drinking fountains will be placed on different heights along the main fountain. The RC Bijeljina has decided that the drinking water fountain should be accessible for adults, children, people with special needs, in particular those sitting in wheel chairs, but also for dogs and cats in the lower part of the fountain and for birds on the top of the fountain. Besides the construction of the fountain, it is planned to construct the nearest surrounding area of the fountain, such as the paths that reach the fountain, banks for visitors to sit down and the arrangement of the green and flower areas.

This RC Bijeljina project is planned to make fresh and healthy drinking water accessible for free for everybody, to promote goals of Rotary in regard to clean water access for everybody and to promote the Rotary movement and the RC Bijeljina among citizens of Bijeljina and surrounding.

The concrete project activities are as follows:

-       Designing the project idea for the drinking water fountain in the City Park of Bijeljina (accomplished)

-      Obtaining all needed permissions for constructing the fountain and ensuring its sustainable maintenance (accomplished)

-       Preparatory work and work on preparing the ground

-  Work on the concrete parts (incl. purchase of needed materials and construction of the concrete parts)

-       Locksmith works (incl. purchase of materials and construction of the sculpture, handles, resets, etc.)

-       Building work (incl. Fundament of the fountain)

-       Parterre arrangement (incl. Paths, plants, banks, etc.)

-       Installation of electricity (incl. Lightening, transformations, ensuring power for the sensors for water fountains for birds, cats and dogs, etc)

-   Installation of the water supply and the sewage (incl. tubing, isolations, constructions of manholes, connection to the City water supply system, etc.)  

The project realization will be monitored by the RC Bijeljina appointed project persons, Aleksandra  Letic, while the construction work will be observed and monitored by RC Bijeljina charter members, Mr. Mirsad Izic, an architecture by training, whose bureau has designed the fountain project.