The preventive checks, which existed until now in public buildings, become mandatory, he explained Efthymios Lekkas, professor of Geology and President of the Organization for Antiseismic Planning and Protection, regarding the results of the working meeting at Megaron Maximos with the object of immediate pre-earthquake control for issues of antiseismic protection and durability of public buildings. “With this initiative, the primary and secondary inspection becomes mandatory in all public buildings, starting with schools and hospitals” noted Mr. Lekkas

Such as he clarified “primary and secondary inspections began in the 2000s, but they were optional, with the result that out of the 80,000 public buildings in the wider public sector that we have in Greece, only 16,000 to 17,000 buildings have been inventoried. The primary control has been done and this database exists in the Earthquake Planning and Protection Agency.

Until now, despite appeals that we did for primary and secondary control, the percentage of buildings was typically very small that were checked every year.

As he pointed out, “with this initiative primary and secondary control is made mandatory in all public buildings, starting with schools and hospitals which are critical services, where children are housed, patients are housed, which have a key role in the entire management of the disaster .

Buildings and earthquake regulations

“30% of the buildings in the territory have been constructed with the new modern anti-seismic regulation”. These buildings are not in any danger. From here on there is a 30% of buildings that were constructed from -69 to -84. These buildings which were constructed under the 1959 earthquake regulation, have no problem unless they have been tampered with, if they are unmaintained and so on.

From 1959 and before we have buildings that don’t have a regulation just that there were some guidelines from the state until 1959. These buildings are a priority for inspection. Not that they are dangerous buildings, but we need to look at the level of performance, such as the level of seismic shielding, so that we can statically improve these buildings, which have been built up to 1959.

Commenting on a recent publication, according to which in 2001 an order had been given for pre-earthquake inspection of 80,000 public buildings and today, two decades later, the information says that only 25,000 have been inspected, that is, 55,000 buildings have not yet been inspected by the relevant agencies, he said :

Should clarify that of the 55,000 buildings remaining for inspection, not all are in use. Between 25 and 30,000 buildings are used. The rest are buildings where people do not gather. They are warehouses, they are buildings which are not particularly important.

As he pointed out, he must map the 30,000 remaining buildings with pre-seismic checks, but also the 25,000 that have already been checked, because it does not mean that the building is checked and considered safe in the long run. Every five years, every decade, we must re-inspect the buildings, so that their anti-seismic adequacy can be established