Radio România Internațional

Tag: high-risk

  • Romania to reinforce its high-risk buildings

    Romania to reinforce its high-risk buildings


    The devastating earthquakes that last week hit Turkey and Syria have prompted the Romanian authorities to take measures for the reinforcement of the buildings, which could be affected by a strong earthquake. Several projects in this respect have been carried out in the past years but with little results and thousands of historical buildings in Romanias major cities could collapse in the event of a powerful earthquake.


    A series of measures on carrying out research and restoration works to old vulnerable buildings, is high on the agenda of the government proceedings in Bucharest, upon request from the countrys Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca. 27 hundred buildings in Romania, most of them in capital city Bucharest, are presently running the risk of being razed to the ground by an earthquake like those that rocked Turkey and Syria last week.


    Two programmes aimed at consolidating these buildings are presently benefitting from funds: a first one that is run by the Ministry of Development and a second one, which has been included in the National Plan of Recovery and Resilience Romania has assumed with the EU.


    Prime Minister Ciuca has called on those responsible to present the measures that are to be taken by the Ministry of Development to step up the programme it was entrusted after the severe situation in Turkey and Syria, where thousands of people have been killed by last weeks quakes.


    The Prime Minister has drawn attention to the problems that reside in the delays of implementing programmes, which already exist.


    Nicolae Ciucă: “These are the problems we are currently facing in Romania. We are doing talks and planning but when it comes to implementing these plans, we come with a series of arguments to justify the delays in implementing them. And this is what I believe has led to this situation we are seeing today, the lack of coherence in implementing the decisions made in this respect.”


    In turn, state secretary with the Ministry of Development, Marin Țole, says that both residential and public buildings such as schools, kindergartens and hospitals are to be consolidated. The Romanian official has also mentioned a special mechanism to simplify the way of identifying the high-risk buildings.


    Marin Țole: “Weve tried to conduct research on all high-risk buildings, of the first and second degree, so that the state may intervene through its Territorial-Administrative Units for their consolidation with funds from the national budget or from those made available by the European Commission”


    The National Plan for the consolidation of buildings relies on a budget of 142. 8 million euros and the programme known as The Wave of Restoration part of the National Plan of Recovery and Resilience has a budget over 500 million euros. The latest big earthquake that hit Romania was on March 4th 1977 when 15 hundred people lost their lives. And according to statistics, Bucharest is the European capital that is most at risk from earthquakes.


    (bill)


  • December 24, 2021 UPDATE

    December 24, 2021 UPDATE

    CHRISTMAS For Orthodox, Greek and Roman Catholic Christians around the world,
    Saturday is Christmas, celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, one of the
    biggest holiday for the Christian world. On Christmas Eve, a common tradition in Romania
    is caroling, a ritual that includes ceremonial texts, dancing and singing.
    Carolers, especially children and youth, convey good wishes and are rewarded by
    hosts with fruit, pretzels, sweets or money. Priests go from house to
    house anouncing the birth of Christ. Christmas calls on all of us to be generous, like the shepherds who
    adored Christ, to give humble love to all around us, to give presents to children
    as well as to the elderly, to the poor, to the lonely, to the mourning and to
    the suffering, said Daniel, the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church. Christmas
    is marked by special services in churches and monasteries, and family
    gatherings and traditions.Old Style Orthodox believers in Russia, Ukraine, Serbia,
    and Georgia celebrate Christmas on 7th January.


    COVID-19 The fifth wave of the pandemic, which is more
    severe than the previous one, is expected to hit in Romania in less than three
    weeks, the country’s Interior Minister Lucian Bode has announced. The spread of
    the Omicron variant will be accelerated by the presence of Romanian workers
    from abroad, who are arriving in large numbers for the winter holidays. The
    number of new infections is still low in Romania, with 717 new cases
    announced on Friday. 44 related fatalities were also announced. Since the
    beginning of the pandemic, 1.8 million Covid infections have been reported in
    Romania and 58,000 related fatalities. Shortly after the authorisation of the
    anti-Covid drug, Paxlovid, in the USA, Romania’s health minister, Alexandru
    Rafila is making moves to import the new drug as soon as possible. Rafila has
    already had a series of meetings with representatives of Pfizer, the company
    that produces the vaccine. According to the latest surveys, the drug reduces the
    risk of hospitalization and death by almost 90%. The US has also authorised an
    anti-viral pill produced by Merck.




    LIST The National Committee for Emergency Situations
    has updated the list of the countries with a high infection risk. Malta entered
    the red tier due to its high infection rate, whereas Romania’s neighbour, the
    ex-soviet Republic of Moldova is now a green-list country. The committee has
    also approved the categories of employees who are exempted from quarantine
    rules, including the crews of ships sailing under Romanian flag, as well as
    drivers of freighters up to 2.4 tons and of passenger buses over 9 seats coming
    from the EU or the EU economic area.




    POLICE Over 8,000 policemen are on duty during the
    Christmas period in Romania, to discourage and prevent crime. Policemen will be
    patrolling together with gendarme troops and in some cases they will be
    accompanied by representatives of the Food Safety Authority to various shopping
    areas to check the observance of the Covid-19 safety rules. Road police will be
    assisted by helicopters to monitor the traffic and prevent any wrongdoing on
    Romania’s motorways. (tr. A.M. Popescu)