Report: Civil protection shelters in Romania in poor state, could only fit 600,000

Romania’s civil shelters, which are to be used to protect people in the event of armed conflict, are few, unsanitary, and largely obsolete in terms of equipment, according to a report by the Court of Accounts.

The audit conducted by the Court of Accounts on the situation of civil protection shelters took place over the past year and covered the period 2021-2023. Auditors found that the total number of civil protection shelters is unknown and that authorities have not conducted an inventory in recent years of places where civilians can be sheltered in case of war.

“The risk of armed conflict associated with the sheltering of the population has not been defined, and no authority has been designated with the primary role of preparing for the population’s sheltering in such exceptional situations. Currently, the total number of civil protection shelters and simple shelters that could be arranged in such cases is unknown, as most local public authorities have not inventoried them,” states the Court of Accounts in its conclusions, made public on Thursday, April 3.

The auditors found that regulations regarding the sheltering of the population in case of war and the equipment of most civil protection shelters and command centers remain at the level of the 1970s. "Since there have been no armed conflicts on Romanian territory, the shelters have not been used for their intended purpose. Currently, many of them are unsanitary, impractical, or have been converted by owners into storage spaces, while others have been modified to the extent that the respective spaces no longer meet sheltering norms," the report states.

Moreover, the population sheltering capacity in case of an air attack is 3.21% (611,922 people) in specially built shelters, and 5.19% (989,507 people) when considering other identified sheltering spaces (such as metro stations, parking lots, passages, underground galleries, tunnels), with a total population of around 19 million.

Out of a total of 5,072 civil protection shelters, both public and private, 2,543 are non-operational (50.14%). Around 73% of the shelters were built before 1990. In this context, the Court of Accounts recommends that authorities develop a National Concept for Sheltering the Population in Situations of Armed Conflict.

The General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations, or IGSU, is the institution authorized to verify both the existing sheltering stock and newly built shelters. ISU representatives have noted, during inspections, that imposing fines for identified deficiencies is not effective in convincing real estate developers to construct compliant shelters.