Romania rushes to consolidate buildings after the earthquake in Turkey

Romanian authorities are rushing to increase the pace of consolidation works of buildings with high seismic risk after the earthquakes in Turkey. A report shows that tens of thousands of Romanians may be injured or killed in the event of a major earthquake.

Over 350,000 residential buildings would be severely damaged and over 45,000 people would be either seriously injured or killed if an earthquake with a magnitude between 7.4 and 8.1 would hit Romania. The figures are provided by the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations in the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the report "National Post-Earthquake Response Concept,” written at the end of 2021 and recently quoted by Digi24. Another document, produced by the Court of Accounts and published in January 2022, draws attention to the fact that state institutions are not prepared for a major earthquake.

Prime minister Nicolae Ciucă said that the government would take responsibility for implementing the decisions related to the consolidation of infrastructure vulnerable to earthquakes and will ensure the necessary funds for the works to start as soon as possible. He also acknowledged that until now the public administration had moved slowly when it comes to consolidating vulnerable buildings.

Minister of development Cseke Attila said during a press conference that the government aims to establish a monitoring program for investments to consolidate buildings at risk. "Today we have 290 funding requests on the platform, out of which 130 are for residential blocks and 160 are for public buildings," he explained.

Cseke Attila added that he had ordered the State Inspectorate in Construction to do periodic checks on ongoing investment projects.

Also on the topic of consolidation works, the minister highlighted that the Ministry of Education has a program funded by the World Bank, which includes the consolidation of 70 schools. Those not covered by the program will receive financing through the Ministry of Development or the National Investment Company, Attila said.

"In terms of the programs carried out by the Ministry of Development, there are three levels through which the government finances seismic risk consolidation works. I would start with the funding within our reach from the PNRR, where we have EUR 555 mln for works that include building consolidation. From this amount, at the moment, we have signed contracts for EUR 441 mln, with contracting beginning in June 2022. We are talking about 238 buildings that have funding secured for seismic risk consolidation. By March 15, we will contract the entire amount," the minister added, cited by