In the more than four decades since a 1977 earthquake caused widespread devastation in its capital of Bucharest and across the country, Romania has made tremendous headway in strengthening disaster risk management (DRM) such that the country is now fast emerging as a model for other countries to follow. A recent workshop, supported by GFDRR, enabled representatives of six European and Central Asian countries to learn firsthand about Romania’s experience modernizing its approach to DRM.
Yet as the Romanian government recognizes in its 2024–35 National Disaster Risk Reduction Strategy, there is much more to be done to safeguard lives and livelihoods in the face of disasters. Among the most urgent resilience challenges facing the country is that much of its vital infrastructure remains highly vulnerable to seismic risk and other natural hazards, in part because the country is dotted with public buildings constructed before 1980 that have not been modified to meet current seismic and building codes.
Against this backdrop, GFDRR has been partnering closely with Romania to help ensure that the country’s infrastructure, including some of the facilities most vital to saving lives in the aftermath of a disaster, are resilient and inclusive.
A grim reality facing Romania is that much of its emergency infrastructure is at risk of significant damage or even collapse should another major earthquake hit the country, which would hinder efforts to rescue and care for those affected. Accordingly, a key priority of GFDRR support has been to increase the resilience of emergency infrastructure, such as fire and police stations. Fire stations in five localities (Mizil, Tecuci, Carei, Obor, and Calarasi) have been reconstructed and upgraded to meet current seismic and building codes, enabling more than 600 emergency personnel to provide fire services for more than 920,000 people.
Technical assistance has also been provided to ensure that the upgraded emergency infrastructure is inclusive and sustainable, in addition to being resilient. The upgraded fire stations, for instance, have dormitories and sanitary facilities for women and men—a feature only now being incorporated into fire stations in Romania. Moreover, these fire stations have not only been designed to harness renewable energy, but also feature designs and spaces tailored to operational needs, reducing their carbon footprint. In conjunction with these efforts, more than 500 first responders, including firefighters, policemen, paramedics, and civil society rescuers, have been trained to respond to the needs of vulnerable groups, such as people with disabilities, during an emergency.
As Romania makes progress on building resilient, inclusive emergency infrastructure, it is also partnering with GFDRR to make its infrastructure resilient across a range of sectors, such as health, education, and civil protection.
For instance, GFDRR has provided technical assistance toward an assessment of seismic risk to health infrastructure led by the Technical University of Civil Engineering of Bucharest. Covering one-third of the building stock of public hospitals in Romania, the assessment is expected to drive and inform the Romanian government’s ongoing efforts to increase the seismic resilience of health care facilities, including by developing a matrix for investment prioritization.
Building upon Romania’s longstanding leadership on citizen-led disaster risk management, volunteers from four universities (Technical University of Civil Engineering of Bucharest, Politehnica University Timisoara, Technical University of Iasi, and Technical University of Cluj-Napoca) collected data for the assessment. One of the key findings was that investments in seismic resilience of health care infrastructure in Romania could prevent direct damage of a staggering 300 million euros in the aftermath of a major seismic event.
GFDRR’s support for Romania’s resilient infrastructure efforts are only one part of the facility’s longstanding engagement with the country. Another major focus of this partnership has been the design and implementation of pre-arranged financing mechanisms that will enable Romania to access post-disaster recovery and reconstruction financing without delay. As of the end of fiscal year 2024, GFDRR was supporting the preparation of a second $500 million World Bank Disaster Risk Management Loan with a Catastrophe Deferred Drawdown Option (Cat DDO) for Romania. Cat DDOs are standby loan facilities that provide immediate liquidity in the aftermath of a disaster or emergency, contingent on policy actions designed to strengthen a country’s disaster risk management capacity. In 2018, GFDRR support was instrumental in preparation of the first such financing package for Romania, which also had a total value of $500 million and was triggered in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
