THE ISSUE OF SHELTERS IN THE SPOTLIGHT - HOW MANY THERE ARE AND WHAT PERCENTAGE OF THE POPULATION THEY CAN COVER - Filenews 2/3 by Vassos Vassiliou
The drone attack on the military airport of the British Akrotiri Bases brings back to the fore the issue of shelters, which can be used in the event of a generalized crisis.
The question "what is the situation regarding the shelters" is far from ideal, despite the fact that efforts have been made lately to impose order.
It is noted that based on a relatively recent answer by the Minister of the Interior, Constantinos Ioannou, to a question by MP Nikos Kettiros, there are 2,200 shelters in Cyprus, which in case of emergency should cover about 920,000 people who make up the population of Cyprus.
The 2,200 shelters cover, according to the answer of the Minister of the Interior, about 30% of the population, but as he explained these are not "territorially structured".
As the minister explained, in old city cores, as a rule, underground spaces are not available, while in areas of beach hotels, there is a plethora of them.
And the minister's most worrying finding was that "the number of shelters is decreasing over time, given that the owners are asking for their abolition and their use in another way".
According to an earlier post by Filenews, due to both increased demand and the "last hole", many owners are seeking to rent out the spaces that had been selected and configured to function as civilian shelters.
The Minister of the Interior had instructed the Civil Defense to re-check the stock of shelters and depending on the differentiations that have occurred in recent years (with the construction of a large number of buildings) relevant political decisions will be made.
It is noted that at some point no new shelters were formed, although several new buildings were offered for this purpose.
As for the suitability of the shelters for hosting the population, in the response of the Ministry of the Interior to Mr. Kettiros, it was indicated that the owner, manager or manager of the space (which was classified as a shelter) must deliver it clean and ready for use within 24 hours of receiving relevant information.
It was also noted that the majority of the shelters were created in the late 1990s, to protect the civilian population during hostilities and specifically to protect the population from bombing and fragmentation.
Another issue that arose from the drone attack concerns the way citizens were informed, taking into account that citizens were not automatically informed through sms messages or in another direct way.
Based on the policy followed (Special National Plan "ELECTRA") the situation is as follows:
-In emergency radiological and nuclear accidents and incidents, the Ministry of Labour is responsible for preparedness and response.
When the ELECTRA project is activated, the Civil Defence is responsible for the following:
-Organization and use of shelters (where appropriate)
-Evacuation and transfer of population to safe places
-Logistics of the Services involved and the affected population
-Announcements or warnings to the population with all the mechanisms, infrastructure and equipment it has at the level of the regional directorate, Civil Defense Stations and Substations, siren system, volunteers, etc.
-Transmission of messages through its wireless network
-Provide facilities for the notification and movement of experts
-Hosting one of the monitoring centers of the telemetric network
-Constant communication with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The Department of Labour Inspection recognizes the risks of nuclear accidents given that it is close to countries that have nuclear reactors, while in the sea and air space of the eastern Mediterranean commercial and non-commercial vessels are traded, which can be nuclear-powered or carry radioactive materials.
