All shelters in Latvia will be divided into three categories

All shelters in Latvia will be divided into three categories

The money was decided upon two months ago, as reported by bb.lvLatvia will need regarding 100 million euros to repair or create shelters and places to take refuge.

What will they build with this money?

Shelters first category will provide protection once morest weapons of mass destruction, toxic chemicals and radioactive contamination. Protection once morest weapons of mass destruction will include protection once morest the destructive factors of a nuclear explosion, chemical warfare agents and bacteriological agents.

Shelters must be equipped with appropriate filters to ensure positive air pressure and devices capable of providing a breathable environment if air is not supplied from outside.

Shelters second category will provide protection once morest the shock wave of an explosion, flying objects such as shrapnel, bullets, glass fragments, and radioactive contamination.

Unlike Category 1 shelters, Category 2 shelters will be constructed with thinner walls and floors, providing protection from blast waves with less overpressure, and will not be equipped with devices capable of providing a breathable environment if air is not supplied from outside.

Finally, shelters third category will be designed to reduce the impact of the blast wave, provide shelter from flying objects such as shrapnel, bullets, building debris, glass fragments, as well as radiation contamination.

The fundamental difference between the second category and the third is not clearly spelled out in the draft law of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Where will they be built?

The bill provides that shelters first category will be constructed in new buildings intended to accommodate critical infrastructure facilities of categories A and B, where personnel will be permanently located.

Shelters second category will be constructed in new buildings in which, according to their purpose, a significant number of people may be present during working or non-working hours.

Shelters third category will be created by adapting buildings or parts of them located in basements or ground floors. Shelters should, if possible, be designed so that they can be used as dual-use facilities, such as underground parking lots, utility rooms and other premises, in order to reduce the costs of building and creating shelters.

Who will be obliged to build?

The bill provides that the requirement to build new first and second category shelters does not apply to facilities whose construction began before the date of entry into force of the amendments to the Civil Protection and Disaster Management Act concerning the regulation of shelters.

The bill stipulates that the owner of the shelter must ensure its maintenance, including regular checks of the equipment, and in the event of a threat, the owner of the shelter must ensure its accessibility by opening the entrance doors.

Local governments have been given the task, which does not require additional financial resources, of planning the placement of shelters in order to ensure a sufficient number of them in accordance with the population density in the relevant territory.

This means that shelters must be distributed so that they are not concentrated in one place and can theoretically accommodate all the inhabitants of the corresponding territory, but some of the inhabitants will have difficulty reaching them in a short time due to the large distance.

It is also recommended to create shelters in buildings with fewer floors – for example, if a section of a nine-story residential building collapses, the load on the basement floor will be greater than if a five-story building collapses.

Who can avoid building?

The bill provides for the establishment of exceptions when, in the case of new construction, it can be established that a shelter does not need to be built, namely – the building department, in consultation with the local government, can decide to exempt from the obligation to build a shelter if the construction of a shelter would result in significantly higher construction costs than would normally be associated with the construction of the relevant building, for example, problems would be created by a high level of groundwater.

Also, there will be no need to build a shelter if there are enough shelters in the relevant territory to provide shelter to 100% of the territory’s inhabitants.

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2024-07-05 16:59:03

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