Michele Cirillo |

Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina - 2014/2015

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  Tuzla, Bosnia-Erzegovina.
  Tuzla is located in the northeastern part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, just below the Majevica mountain and an average height of 239 meters above sea level, and after Sarajevo and Banja Luka is the third largest city in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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  Tuzla, Bosnia-Erzegovina.
  The indiscriminate salt exploitation along the last 100 years, strongly influenced the groundwater level. The most collapsed part of Tuzla is presently subjected to flooding during strong rainfalls, but the biggest threaten is represented by the water table rise that affects the area as consequence of brine pumping suspension.

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  Mine Tušanj, Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bijedić Džayid, geologist.
  Starting salt exploitation - officially in 1906 - this area became the reference point for mining.

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  Tuzla, Bosnia-Erzegovina.
  Archaeological evidence suggests that Tuzla can be considered one of the oldest European settlements (Neolithic period).

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  Tuzla, Bosnia-Erzegovina. What remains of an old music school.
  The wild brine pumping caused dramatic effects on buildings in Tuzla (damage and collapses). And whole areas of the city have been evacuated.

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  Mine Tušanj, Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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  Mine Tušanj, Tuzla, Bosnia-Herzegovina.
  From 1906 to 1950, the annual extraction rate was very low (about 170,000 m3) compared to the strong increase occurred in the second half of the century. The exploitation has reached its maximum in 1982 with more than 2 million m3 of salt water pumped.

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  Tuzla, Bosnia-Erzegovina.
  Hilmo Mujic 77 years old.
  He was a bricklayer. He lives in a container in the worst affected area by subsidence. He lost everything: 300 fruit trees and beekeeping. Hilmo is waiting for his new house in an area not far from there. He hopes to be able to enter in December. The Municipality of Tuzla offered to disadvantaged like him (in the area are involved eight families) different solutions, including the construction of new buildings.

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  Tuzla, Bosnia-Erzegovina.
  The old town center. In the middle the former city hall.

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  Tuzla, Bosnia-Erzegovina. University of Tuzla, Faculty of Geology.
  The town of Tuzla, thanks to European funding of EUR 70.000 and to the collaboration with the University of Bologna (CIRSA, Italy) and the Province of Ravenna, installed one of the most cutting-edge equipment and technology in order to monitor this issue by identifying the main risk factors and quantifying their impact. Untill 2008.

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  Tuzla, Bosnia-Erzegovina. SOLANA Tuzla, Inc. Salt Industry
  The Salt Industry was established by order of the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I and has been operating continuously, also during the war, since 1885. SOLANA today produces 130,000 tons of salt. Until the 90s produced 200,000. Before the war SOLANA was the only salt industry on the former Yugoslavia. Today covers the European market (Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria) and employs approximately 400 people.

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  Tuzla, Bosnia-Erzegovina.
  During the communist period, Tuzla developed into a major industrial and cultural centre in former Yugoslavia. During the Bosnian war, 1992-1995, was the only municipality not governed by nationalist authorities.

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  Tuzla, Bosnia-Erzegovina.
  Tuzla is stubbornly a multiethnic community. In the city there are many religious monuments such as the Mosque Šarena džamija and the Serbian Orthodox Church from 1874.

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  Tuzla, Bosnia-Erzegovina. Pannonian lake.
  Opened in 2003 it can be considered a beach where Bosnians spend their Sundays. In 1914, right in this area, it was recorded the phenomenon of subsidence for the first time.

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  Tuzla, Bosnia-Erzegovina. Pannonian lake.

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  Tuzla, Bosnia-Erzegovina. The old town center.
  The wild brine pumping caused dramatic effects on buildings in Tuzla (damage and collapses). And whole areas of the city have been evacuated.
  However, fractures on the roads in the city center are still evident as in the areas where there are still old buildings.

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  Tuzla, Bosnia-Erzegovina. The old town center, commemorative plaque.
  May 25, 1995. A grenade thrown by nationalist Bosnian-Serbs kills 71 young people, wounding other 150. Parents and relatives of the people involved in the massacre - muslim, croats, serbians - decided to bury them all together and not in their own ethnic cemeteries.

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  Tuzla, Bosnia-Erzegovina. SOLANA Tuzla, Inc. Salt Industry.

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  Tuzla, Bosnia-Erzegovina.
  The old town center. What remains of former city hall.

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  Tuzla, Bosnia-Erzegovina. SOLANA Tuzla, Inc. Salt Industry.

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  Tuzla, Bosnia-Erzegovina. SOLANA Tuzla, Inc. Salt Industry.
  The salt processing.

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  Tuzla, Bosnia-Erzegovina. Western area.

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  Tuzla, Bosnia-Erzegovina. Western area.

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  Tuzla, Bosnia-Erzegovina.
  A retired in his own home. In Tuzla only the elderly seem to remember the extent of damage caused by salt extraction.

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  Tuzla, Bosnia-Erzegovina. Western area.

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  Tuzla, Bosnia-Erzegovina.
  Areas with more fractures and faults correspond to areas where buildings have been demolished and the ground leveled. These areas have been heavily modified by human restoration works or redevelopment. However, fractures on the roads in the city center are still evident as in the areas where there are still old buildings.

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  Tuzla, Bosnia-Erzegovina.
  Areas with more fractures and faults correspond to areas where buildings have been demolished and the ground leveled. These areas have been heavily modified by human restoration works or redevelopment. However, fractures on the roads in the city center are still evident as in the areas where there are still old buildings.

Located in the northeastern part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Tuzla is the "city of salt" (‘tuz' is the Turkish word for salt) and has neolithic origin. Thanks to salt deposits can be considered one of the oldest European settlements.

During the communist period, Tuzla developed into a major industrial and cultural centre in former Yugoslavia.(SOLANA was the only salt industry on the area and covered part of the European salt market). During the Bosnian war, 1992-1995, was the only municipality not governed by nationalist authorities. And, while the rest of the country was divided between ethnic groups, nationalities and minorities, Tuzla stubbornly remained a multiethnic community.

Today the city of Tuzla is collapsing, day after day.

An old town center crushing under the eyes of the citizens. Cracks passing through houses, fractures cutting sidewalks. Where war could not operate, instead destruction is succeeding caused by a specify geological phenomenon: Subsidence. 
The collapsing phenomenon that affect Tuzla are the consequence of wild brine pumping activities carried out along the last 100 years.

The indiscriminate salt exploitation - started in 1906 and reached his maximum in the year 1982 with more than 2 million m3 pumped brine - has been carried out by means of 150 boreholes at an average depth of 400-500 m. and changing over time the hydrogeological conditions. This meant a serious soil sinking (in the central area of the city has reached 17 meters) and damage to buildings and urban infrastructure.

Here some number: 25 billion tons of salt are extracted during the mining; 12 million m3 of "deficiency" generated; about 2,000 are the buildings collapsed in the last sixty years; 15,000 the number of people who have lost their homes. The north-eastern part of Tuzla correspond to the area that have been mostly damaged by subsidence and often subjected to severe flooding in case of rainfalls. In this parts buildings have been completely destroyed and the traces of the original surface faults have been obliterated by the restoration activities. 
However another factor is complicating the situation of Tuzla. The stop of mining, which took place in 2007, has now generated a recovery and increase of the groundwater level. This means the risk of severe flooding of inner cities.

In 2005, the town of Tuzla, thanks to the collaboration with the University of Bologna (CIRSA, Italy) and the Province of Ravenna, installed one of the most cutting-edge equipment and technology in order to monitor this issue by identifying the main risk factors and quantifying their impact.

This project stopped in 2008.


(The images were taken in December 2014 and July 2015 in collaboration with Emanuela Laurenti)

A sincere appreciation to Jasenko Đorđević, Francesco Stecchi (University of Bologna), Jasmina Ovčina, Dina Begic, Hilmo Mujic, Edin Delic, Osman H. Avdic, Marida Paci, Rosy Santella.