Umka

Umka (Serbian Cyrillic: Умка) is a suburban settlement of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in the municipality of Čukarica.

Location and geography

Umka is located 22 km south-west of Belgrade, on the right bank of the Sava river. It is a crossroads on the Belgrade-Obrenovac freeway, with roads connecting it from here with another important freeway to the east, the "Ibarska magistrala".

Umka was a separate municipality, comprising surrounding villages, but in 1960 it was dissolved and divided between Čukarica and Barajevo municipalities (villages of Meljak and Vranić).

From the geological aspect, the location of the settlement is highly problematic. Entire right slope of the Sava in that section is a very active mass wasting area. This causes the damages on the houses and the freeway which sink and get ruptured constantly. Damages are being repaired and patched but the massive project of stopping down the terrain is found to be too expensive at the moment. Addition to this problem is a route of the future Belgrade-Adriatic highway, as the Belgrade City government plans to conduct the road on the left bank of the Sava, in the flat Syrmia region, bypassing the mass wasting area, while the government of Serbia pushes the right bank route. Ensuing debate became highly political and resulted in open clash between the Belgrade's mayor Nenad Bogdanović and Serbian minister for capital investments Velimir Ilić in 2006.

Population

Umka is classified as an urban settlement (town), but many published sources refer to it as "varošica" ("small town") even though statistically there is no such classification. The settlement experienced high growth of population after the World War II, but it is stagnating in the last three decades. New tourist settlement ("vikend naselje") is built on the bank of the Sava. Population of Umka:

* 1921 - 772
* 1961 - 3,731
* 1971 - 5,458
* 1981 - 5,618
* 1991 - 4,840
* 2002 - 5,292

Umka makes a continuis built-up urban area with another suburban settlement, Rucka, so in the future much smaller Rucka (population of 317, Census 2002) might be annexed to it.

Economy

Umka was well known in former Yugoslavia for its two major factories: "Zelengora", the knitted goods manufacturer and general representative for the Speedo swimsuits, and "Umka" cardboard factory. Both factories followed the destiny of other companies during the economic collapse in the 1990s. Umka also has an advanced agricultural farm.

Images of Umka

References

* "Mala Prosvetina Enciklopedija", Third edition (1985); Prosveta; ISBN 86-07-00001-2
* Jovan Đ. Marković (1990): "Enciklopedijski geografski leksikon Jugoslavije"; Svjetlost-Sarajevo; ISBN 86-01-02651-6