Arafat insists on civil shelters: « There are risks »

The Secretary of State in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Raed Arafat, said on Saturday, in Focsani, that civil protection shelters are mandatory, even if the risks are low.

« To be prepared does not mean that we know that it will be something. But there are risks. There is a risk of floods, there is the risk of extreme weather phenomena, there is a risk of earthquake, there is a risk of fires, there is a risk of infections and there is a risk of a conflict, because we are near a conflict area, but that does not mean that it is a great probability. Let’s have shelters, ”said Raed Arafat.

The official has drawn attention to the current state of the civil protection shelters in Romania, specifying that their number is insufficient, and many are not functional.

« Their number is small. Many of them are not developed. And they need to be developed. If we take the last check done by IGSU only last year, fines were given over 380,000 lei, besides the warnings, besides recommendations and so on. So there is concern and this concern is not only now, it is all the time. It is one of the tasks of IGSU to do the continuing to the IGSU. It is administered.

He mentioned that the Department for Emergency Situations (DSU), which he runs, asked the Court of Accounts an audit to evaluate the current situation of shelters at national level.

« The Department for Emergency Situations is the one who asked the Court of Accounts to make an emergency audit. Let’s see how we stay.

Raed Arafat pointed out that Romania is not the only country that seriously treats the question of civil protection shelters.

« We are not the only ones who say this, are the Nordic countries, the Baltic countries, the Poland and other European countries, which all have this in their inventory, the civil protection shelters. They have long and always, and before the war in Ukraine, » said Arafat.

Raed Arafat was present on Saturday, in Focşani, at the inauguration of the new headquarters of the Inspectorate for Emergency Situations Vrancea, together with Alanna Simpson, a coordinating specialist in disaster risk management, the IGSU Inspector General and the Deputy Inspector General of IGSU General Dan-Paul Iamandi.