Romania and Bulgaria, “vulnerable at floods”

The authorities from many states are advised to be prepared for the darkest sceneries and even for material and human loss.

The UN agency of specialty communicates with the National Agency of Meteorology( ANM) from Romania, but also with the national branch of Red Cross.

At European level exists an alert system to which contributes all the members. In the following weeks, it will be proved its efficiency, declares for Radio România Actualităţi, Denis McClean, the representative for UN agency.

“Danube is starting to thaw. It is an obvious sign that spring is coming and, also, a warning that floods will come. Floods are inevitable”, states Denis McClean.

The countries that don’t have the public infrastructure adapted also to these difficult conditions of winter or floods will suffer from the beginning. In the whole world, over 100 millions of people are annually affected by floods. I saw this also in Europe, especially 10 years ago, when over 20 countries were hit. After this episode, the European Committee( CE) has established the European alert system in case of floods. A test for this system is following. Now we will see how efficient is this”, also declared Denis McClean.

According to Denis McClean, the representative of UN agency (ONU), imminent floods on Danube course are expected.

“The imminence is given by the weather; it depends how faster it is warming. The forecast for Romania and Bulgaria clearly predicts even of a warming between 9-10 Celsius degrees in the following period. People have to be prepared then for floods. When things aren’t settled, we assist at tragedies like the one in Thailand”, also said Denis McClean.

“Any exposed country has to take security measures and to protect the vulnerable communities. In Romania, there is a national platform for assessing the risks regarding floods. Every country has its particularities, the responsibility is of the governments, and the conclusions are the same for anybody: the infrastructure of Europe needs to be improved in order to face the difficult winters. We don’t want to have isolated communities in the dark anymore or children that don’t go to school”, states Denis McClean.

UN(ONU) agency advised Romania to take all the measures to modernize the infrastructure, also says Denis McClean.

“We can only give advice and show availability. The governments know now where the weaknesses are. They don’t have to build where risks exist, anyway. If a railway or a road from an exposed region was taken by floods, either you don’t build there anymore, or build in such a manner that this thing never happen again. These are basic lessons that must be learned from these disasters”, also declared Denis McClean.

Translated by
Alexandra-Diana Mircea
MTTLC, Bucharest University