By: Zuzana Stanton-Geddes, Alexandra Calin, Anda Georgiana Anica
The recent September 2024 floods across Central Europe underscore the urgency of disaster resilience, with Romania particularly impacted. More than 6,900 households were affected, 300 people evacuated, and seven lives lost. Shortly after, a 5.2 magnitude earthquake struck, further reminding us of the country’s vulnerabilities.
Romania faces significant risk from floods, earthquakes, droughts, landslides, wildfires, and extreme weather. Between 1970 and 2021, 90 disasters caused $6.2 billion in damage and affected over 2 million people. Future projections show extreme events could increase sixfold by 2080. Bucharest, the EU capital most at risk from earthquakes, has over half its population living in highly vulnerable buildings constructed before modern seismic building codes were introduced, heightening potential casualties in a major quake.
For Romanians, these risks translate into families displaced, livelihoods put on hold, lives lost, and delayed recovery, mirroring challenges faced in disaster-prone regions worldwide.
Modernizing and innovating policy framework
To address these growing challenges, Romania with World Bank support has committed to build resilience and strengthen its institutional, social and financial resilience through several instruments such as the recently approved Disaster Risk Management Loan with a Catastrophe Deferred Drawdown Option (CaT DDO). This mechanism provides access to $500 million of contingency finance, ensuring Romania has the resources to respond quickly when disasters strike. Besides emergency financing, the CAT DDO is a comprehensive tool that supports Romania to advance key reforms in a multi-hazard and inclusive manner to build long-term resilience and reduce disasters across several sectors.
Under the CAT DDO framework, Romania has introduced several ambitious reforms and national strategies. The Disaster Risk Reduction Strategy for 2024-2035, developed with support from the World Bank, sets a proactive, multisectoral, and a whole-of-society approach. Covering all major hazards faced by Romania, it also highlights cross-cutting areas such as social inclusion, gender-sensitive disaster risk management, cultural heritage, business continuity planning and the importance of risk communication and awareness. The National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy for 2024-2030 with the perspective of the year 2050 complements existing mitigation goals through actions across multiple key sectors, including improvement of forecasting and early warning systems, for example through expanded network coverage. These reforms complement other important initiatives, such as the implementation of Romania’s National Strategy for Seismic Risk Reduction and of the Flood Risk Management Plans, developed in line with the European Union’s Floods Directive. Notable efforts are being made also in the education sector, with new laws passed in 2023 to increase the safety and resilience of schools and to prepare teachers and students in pre-university education for emergency situations.
Strengthening inclusive social resilience
The CAT DDO also supports the country’s initiatives to improve social resilience for the most vulnerable groups. In Romania, disasters can disproportionately affect more than 23 percent of the population living in poverty, as well as marginalized groups and more than 900,000 people with disabilities, both in terms of relative financial impact and length of recovery time. Recognizing this, the country is making efforts to address some of these gaps, by training first responders to better support people with disabilities during emergencies. More than 500 first responders have been trained so far on how to assist people with visual, hearing or intellectual disabilities in case of a disaster. One of the first responders shared his experience from the training: ”I am taking with me the feeling that I have removed some barriers, helping me to better communicate and interact with people with disabilities, and that the real disability is not caring for others”.
Photos: World Bank
These efforts are supported by the World Bank and the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery, under the Japan-World Bank Program for Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Management in Developing Countries and through the Technical Assistance Financing Facility (TAFF) for Disaster Prevention and Preparedness in the Europe and Central Asia region, financed by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (DG ECHO).
Romania’s proactive and holistic approach, driven by the CAT DDO, not only prepares the country for immediate emergencies but also builds resilience to preserve lives, livelihoods and development gains. As climate risks grow globally, Romania’s efforts set a model for how countries can safeguard their most valuable asset: their people.