Zagreb Mayor Tomislav Tomasevic has said the price of water will go up by 15% as of March, stressing that the reason is not the government's regulation on a higher fee for water use but the need to invest in the city's water supply infrastructure as no investments have been made in 70 years.

Even though a 20% increase in water charges was announced in December, Tomasevic said on Tuesday that the increase would be smaller, 15%, given that the government had postponed its regulation on an increase in the fee for water use.

“However, there is still a need for investments so as to reduce the incidence of pipe bursts and the loss of water in the water supply network of 50%,” the mayor told a news conference.

Tomasevic had previously announced that water charges would go up as of March, noting that the current situation with the city’s water supply infrastructure, marked by frequent pipe bursts, was untenable.

“We will withdraw HRK 1.8 billion (€239m) from EU funds but we need to co-finance the investments with 30% of the necessary funds. Since under the law, water supply companies must be self-sustainable, they can only increase their revenue, there is no other option,” he said.

Tomasevic and his deputies today opened a reconstructed primary school, damaged in the 22 March 2020 earthquake.

“The City of Zagreb has thus completed all projects for the integral reconstruction of primary schools, and now only secondary schools remain to be renovated,” he said, adding that the school opened today was the ninth primary school to be reopened in the past year.

The reconstruction work cost €16.6 million, students returned to school after two years on 9 January, and most funds for the reconstruction project will be obtained from the European Solidarity Fund, while a smaller portion will be obtained under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, it was said.

Deputy Mayor Luka Korlaet said that the renovation of four secondary schools in Zagreb would be completed this year as well.

“So far 2,193 students have returned to their schools, and the reconstruction work has cost HRK 366 million in total,” Korlaet said.