Riga municipality will clean up several basements during the Great Cleanup; calls on residents to follow suit and create safe havens

During the big cleanup, on April 27, while cleaning and adapting the basements of several municipal buildings to the civil defense requirements, the Riga City Council invites residents to pay attention to the arrangement of their basements as well.

As informed by the management of the Riga City Council on Wednesday, April 24, at the press conference, the employees of the municipality will arrange the basements in the secondary school 49 of Riga and in the protective building located next to the primary school “Rīdze” at 1 Zigfrīda Annas Meirovitsa bulvāri, as well as the rooms adapted for shelter in the social care center “Mežciems”, setting an example , how to organize and adapt the basement to civil defense requirements. With the arrangement of these basements, the municipality begins the process of identifying and arranging suitable places for shelter in the municipality’s properties, as well as inviting residents to follow the example in an informational campaign.

“”You want peace, prepare for war” – with this ancient wisdom, the Riga City Council invites residents of Riga both this week, on the day of the Great Cleanup, and also after it, to identify the basements of their houses, to clean them of unnecessary belongings and arrange them in such a way that they can become suitable for a safe shelter places in an emergency. The municipality, for its part, is surveying the situation in its properties, including educational institutions, social centers and other places, where the basements will be arranged under the guidance of the Riga City Council’s Civil Defense and Operational Information Department, while potential places of refuge in their residences, which are private properties, can only be arranged by each individual. From the very beginning, the idea of ​​the big clean-up has been to achieve a change in habits in society, which makes a clean and tidy environment the norm, instead of a littered one. With this initiative of the Riga City Council, we invite you not to wait for someone to come and fix things, but to get up, do things and keep the environment around you in order, so that it is not only clean, but also safe.” says Vilnis Ķirsis, the chairman of the Riga City Council

“The big cleanup in Riga is turning a new page this year and adapting to the situation. At its very root, it has a lot in common with civil defense – both processes require good organization and active involvement of citizens. Therefore, this spring I invite you to join us, familiarize yourself with the shelter guidelines developed by VUGD and devote energy to organizing your basements and potential safe spaces. This will be a contribution to both your own security and the common security of all of us. I also invite everyone to participate in person or remotely on May 8 in our next civil defense seminar on receiving information and the risks of disinformation in an emergency situation, which we will announce in the next few days,” emphasizes Riga Vice Mayor Linda Ozola.

It is planned that on April 27, the mayor of Riga, Vilnis Ķirsis, will participate in the arrangement of the cellars – at 8.30 in the social care center “Mežciems”, at 9.15 – in Riga 49th secondary school, but from 10.00 – Siegfried Anna Meirovitsa Boulevard 1.

Riga municipality calls on residents to clear basements or underground floors of waste, construction debris, hazardous substances, structures and objects with sharp edges, which could pose an additional threat to people staying in these premises. The cleaning of the basements should be coordinated with the building managers, as it is also necessary to ensure the collection of the removed waste.

Also, residents are invited to consider the possibility of creating shelters or places where they can take shelter in the vacated basements and underground floors, in accordance with Guidelines of the State Fire and Rescue Service.

It has already been announced that with the slogan “Riga civil defense plan – know and participate!” Riga City Council has started an information campaign for residents and a cycle of eight seminars on civil protection, which will continue throughout the year. In the first seminar “General recommendations for Riga residents in the X hour”, practical information that residents of Riga should know about the Riga civil defense plan, evacuation, recommendations for creating a safe place of refuge, involvement in national defense and other important personal protection issues was provided.

Riga municipality’s civil protection plan, the recording of the seminar and various other useful informational materials on how to act in emergency situations are available on the municipality’s website www.riga.lv in the “Civil protection” section.

Detailed information on actions in various emergency situations is available in the civil protection plan of the Riga municipality, as well as the experts of the municipality and security services will explain it in more detail in other seminars. The next seminar will take place on May 8, where experts will talk about the availability of information in crisis situations and the risks of misinformation.

Residents of Riga are invited to be active, familiarize themselves with the information available on the website www.riga.lv, follow the information on the municipality’s social networks and participate in the seminars organized by the municipality, because awareness promotes a sense of security and avoids misunderstandings and mistakes.

The information was prepared by: Mārtiņš Vilemsons, Acting Head of the External Communication Department of Riga Municipality, e-mail: [email protected].