The public shelter is flooded - where will the residents of the Haifa neighborhood go during an alarm?

(live here during wartime) - In recent days, since the outbreak of the "Iron Swords" war, a lot of effort has been put into cleaning and treating as many shelters as possible throughout the city. Many volunteers mobilized for the important cause, and together with the municipality, are trying to reach as many shelters as possible in order to use them for the benefit of the residents.

The need for public shelters stems from the fact that in Haifa there are quite a few neighborhoods where the residents do not have shelters or shelters in their residential buildings and the solution for them is only a public shelter. One of the neighborhoods where the residents do not have a solution for the moment when, God forbid, they have to go to a protected space, is the Bat Galim neighborhood. The shelter that should provide them An answer is the shelter at the "Aliya" school on Aliya Street in the neighborhood, but now it turns out that even after the municipality came to check its condition and take care of it, the residents will not be able to use it when needed.
(Update to the article published in Hai Pa on Tuesday 17/10/23 and appears below)

As published in Chai Fe last Tuesday (17/10/23), the public shelter in the Bat Galim neighborhood, which is located in the "Aliya" school building, is completely flooded with water, and even after being told to take care of it by the municipality, the shelter is still unusable.

The chairman of the Bat Galim neighborhood, Yuval Busin, arrived 3 days ago (Monday, 16/10/23) at the shelter at the "Aliyah" school, after residents reported to him that there were no keys to the shelter and that it was flooded. Busin contacted the municipality, which sent workers the next day who tried to pump the water from the shelter. In the photos taken by Boussin, you can see the severe neglect that prevails in the shelter and the large amount of water that filled it, which has obviously been standing like that for years and has created a lot of rust, along with broken objects, mosquitoes and flies.

Bosin says that the municipal workers did pump the water, but even after the pumping, they claimed that it is impossible to bring the shelter to a condition where it can be used, because everything is refilled. "At this point, we were informed by the municipality that it is impossible to repair the shelter," he said. It should be noted that for the students of the school there is a concrete protected space inside the school.

"If the shelter cannot be used, it must be sealed"

"The municipality pumped out the shelter, but there was still water in it," Busin says today, emphasizing that he is not satisfied with that: "I want to hear from the municipality what it is doing and what it is not doing in the shelter. This shelter is not as big as other shelters, and it still has value. Groundwater continues to enter there. If they don't intend to invest there, then they need to seal it completely, so that no water can enter it. They need to bring 7-8 concrete mixers and pour it inside the shelter, because there are mosquitoes and stagnant water there. They bring diseases. Something must be done, it cannot stay like this, it requires treatment."

The municipality: "There is no solution for the shelter at this point"

The Haifa Municipality stated in response that this is a small shelter in which there is a constant rise of groundwater. The place has been inspected by the professionals and there is no solution for this at this time. "It should be noted that since the first Gulf War the state has not established public shelters. If an alarm sounds, the public must act according to the instructions of the Home Front Command based on the rules of 'the most protected available'.

from the Ministry of Health It was reported that the municipality is responsible for the care of the public shelters.

The original article is from Tuesday, 17/10/23

The school shelter in the Bat Galim neighborhood is flooded

The municipality began this week (Tuesday, 17/10/23) to pump the water that overflowed the public shelter at the "Aliya" school on the central Aliya Street in Bat Galim, where many residents live and pass during the day.
The municipal employees arrived at the scene after the day before (Monday) the chairman of the Bat Galim neighborhood committee, Yuval Busin, arrived and saw the condition of the shelter. Busin's anger came out because the shelter has been flooded with water for a long time and will not be able to respond to the residents, if God forbid they have to come Busin explains that even if they manage to pump all the water from the shelter, it will still take a long time before the shelter can be used.

Yuval Busin at the 'Alia' school shelter ► Watch 

"In any case, the shelter is flooded and will not be able to respond to anyone"

Bosin tells me here: "Yesterday I arrived at the place to see the condition of the shelter at the school. First thing - the shelter was locked. I approached one of the workers to ask how it is possible that the shelter is locked on days like this, and he told me that it is meaningless, since the shelter is flooded anyway and will not be able to answer He added that he also did not have a key to open the shelter.

Standing water in a flooded shelter can cause health problems. And I think no less than that, in the Bat Galim neighborhood there are many residents without a protected space, some of them live on Aliya Street. If they had used the shelter at the school, he would have been able to answer them. I don't understand how such a situation can exist, that the shelter has been standing like this for years.'

Why not vacuum the shelter?

"I don't understand this disdain for the residents, why don't they bring a pump of Carmel water and pump the water from the shelter? Just because there won't be students in the school during the war, it doesn't mean they won't use the shelter. The school is inside the neighborhood and also serves as a polling station for elections, so a shelter that can save residents must be usable?

Bosin adds that when he saw the condition of the shelter, he immediately contacted the municipality:

When I saw the state of the shelter at the school, I sent a message to 106. They told me that inside the school there is a protected space made of concrete, which the students can access. Although it is excellent that the students have a solution, I am also looking for a solution for the residents who live here. Many of us at alarm time just go to the stairwell. If missiles 2 m long and more fall here, the stairwell will not help anyone.

Haifa Municipality's response:

The Education Administration dealt with the problem in the past and is dealing with it now thoroughly by professionals who specialize in the issue. It should be noted that these days the employees of the education system are working on testing and training all the shelters in the city to make sure that they are all compliant and ready for an emergency.