The Civil Protection Plan was presented to the Saeima Defense, Internal Affairs and Corruption Prevention Committee on Wednesday, February 7. The plan includes disaster management measures, the establishment and construction of shelters, and guidelines for local governments on how to set up gatherings and temporary accommodations.
Getting to a safer place, a blanket, a mattress to sleep on, and other necessities in case of a military threat could only be provided to less than 2% of the Latvian population. The figures are about 40 thousand inhabitants.
“Accommodation as such is available much more. Collecting all local government information – it is 176 thousand. But the equipment – I mean blankets, beds, mattresses – is limited,” said VUGD chief Mārtiņš Baltmanis.
The defense plan also assesses building basements as shelters. In Latvia, there are about 30 thousand of those. But before that, basements need to be surveyed, and only about 300 people in Latvia are qualified to do so.
Local governments must also set up an emergency plan. It is not yet known how many municipalities have developed it.
“We offer all local governments to organize training, where cooperation between the local government and the National Armed Forces is being developed in case of a military threat,” said Aigars Mikiško, director of the Ministry of Defense's (AM) crisis Management and Resilience Department.
