Minister of the Interior Agnė Bilotaitė at the conference “Covers in Lithuania – will we have to wait another 100 years for changes” organized by the Freedom Party? repeated several thoughts heard many times – according to the minister, it was after the war in Ukraine that civil safety became a priority area, and before the war, no attention was paid to civil safety for about 30 years.
A. Bilotaitė once again reminded that such requirements are currently being raised – 60% in cities. residents must be protected by shelters, and in districts – 40 percent.
The Minister also mentioned the Civil Protection Strengthening and Development Program signed today –the above-mentioned program provides for the main directions of civil protection development and specific measures, financing needs until 2030. The Civil Protection Program foresees 243 million. EUR – this amount of money is intended for the development of the network of shelters – providing the opportunity to receive financing for the installation of shelters in municipalities, which are lacking.
A. Bilotaitė did not miss the opportunity to mention that the ministry is doing its best. “I am doing everything with the team so that we have a breakthrough“said the Minister of Internal Affairs.
The Minister of the Environment, Simonas Gentvilas, also found something to be happy about – thanks to his efforts, amendments to the Construction Technical Regulations (STR) were adopted, according to which it will be mandatory to install shelters in newly built apartment buildings.
A separate plan is being prepared for Vilnius
During the discussion, A. Bilotaitė emphasized that the installation of a shelter network is hard to imagine without the initiative of municipalities. According to the data of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, 17 municipalities have so far fully achieved their goals. And here is the situation in big cities so far:
- In Vilnius, shelters would be enough for 49 percent. population
- In Šiauliai – 54 percent.
- In Kaunas – 34 percent.
- in Klaipėda – 18 percent.
- In Panevėžys – 6 percent.
We remind you that the currently set goal is 60 percent. residents must be protected by shelters.
The Minister of Internal Affairs also assures that special attention is being paid to the capital Vilnius – a separate plan is being prepared for the capital.
“Regarding the Vilnius municipality, we are in constant contact with the head of the administration regarding a separate plan for the Vilnius municipality. We understand that the capital has the highest concentration of people“, said A. Bilotaitė.
“Vilnius does not look bad – added Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Vitaly Dmitrijev.
According to the vice mayor of Vilnius, Arūnas Šileris, Vilnius has reached the target of 60%. the goal could be reached this year as well. True, the opening of several schools will have to be delayed because of this.
“Currently, the graduation works of 4 new schools have been postponed for a year. We will finish in 2028. on September 1, as the structures will need to be redesigned“, said the Vice Mayor of Vilnius.
The Vilnius municipality also provides legal acts, according to which shelters can be used for other purposes during peacetime.
“In the absence of an emergency or state of war, the shelter must be used for other activities that do not contravene the law. When planning to use the shelter for another activity, it is necessary to assess the nature of the activity – so that it does not interfere with preparing to use the shelter for the first use“, said A. Šilleris.
It is true that the possibilities of this use can be quite limited, because the STR stipulates that shelters cannot have windows. And how a room without windows can be used for other purposes is not entirely clear.
The loud speech did not leave an impression on the architects
The architects participating in the discussion, members of the Lithuanian Chamber of Architects (LAR) Saulius Pamerneckis and Tumas Mazūras, assessed the situation of shelters somewhat differently.
“We are people closer to the ground, we see the problem from a slightly different angle“, T. Mazur said.
According to T. Mazūrs, a lot of chaos has been introduced when it comes to security structures – the public is being misled by different concepts.
“Previously, everyone understood the word hideout. Now we have made maybe six from that one word – there is a hiding place, shelter, structures of collective shelter, which are further divided into three categories, which are subject to different requirements“, said the architect.
According to the architect, there is currently too much talk about installing shelters in new buildings – according to the expert, installing shelters in new houses alone is not a sufficient step. According to the architect, the regulation should apply to every household and not be referred to as advice.
“We need another direction. In our house, it should be more regulated than in the form of advice“, said T. Mazūrs.
In total, LAR submitted 8 structural and 57 editorial comments, formulated requirements – it is true, the Ministry of Environment took into account only a small part of these requirements.
Architects emphasize the uncertainty of concepts and general rules as problems ejection through different laws (STR, crisis management law, LRV orders), lack of deadlines.
Some of the shortcomings of STR mentioned by architects are surprising – for example, according to the current regulation, ventilation in shelters is not mandatory, but only recommended. So it is not entirely clear what the residents hiding in the shelter will have to breathe.
In other cases, the legal norms are not prepared at all – for example, the number of people per shelter is calculated according to the requirements of the fire safety rules – then the shelters have extremely large areas per person – several times larger than, for example, in Finland.
Architects also draw attention to the fact that the new order of the Ministry of the Environment, which obliges to install shelters in apartment buildings, is insufficient – according to T. Mazūr, real estate investors will adapt to the order and start building lower residential housing. As a potential solution, the architect suggests expanding the requirement – according to him, every new residential building should be equipped with a shelter.
As T. Mazūrs explained, some aspects of the regulation of shelters are so confusing that even foreigners who manufacture equipment for shelters do not understand them.
“Last week we just had guests from a Finnish company that manufactures equipment for hiding places – it was very difficult to explain our classification, the Finns left without understanding“, said the architect.
During the presentation, the architects showed a video filmed in Ukraine, where a concrete shelter is shown, with an entrance from the street side.
Architect Saulius Pamerneckis also noticed that in Finland (whose network of shelters is often mentioned as an example for Lithuania) shelters are designed in such a way that they can withstand 72 hours of attack
“Everything there is very clearly done according to the fact that a person will need to stay for 72 hours – that he will have water, other facilities, etc.“, said S. Pamerneckis.
What will happen in a few hours is not clear
The current shelters being installed are designed to withstand a bombardment of only two to three hours. That is why Seimas member Tomas Vytautas Raskevičius had a question – what awaits after that?
“I wonder what happens later, after those few hours. If we don’t put people in for 72 hours. underground, means that people are leaving. So what’s the plan?“, – asked a member of the Seimas.
Then the Minister of the Interior replied that in the event of a longer attack, evacuation should be considered – and all municipalities must have evacuation plans. It is true that the contents of these evacuation plans are not made public, so how everything would actually go is left to guess.
Tags: experts comment Lithuanian rules surprised Finns installed hiding places left realizing
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