Ukrainian Emergencies Minister Viktor Baloha has expressed concern about the readiness of the housing stock for the upcoming heating season.
"We’re sure that we’re really ready for the heating season. I hope that we are ready almost everywhere. If we take the housing stock, the level of readiness in such megalopolises as Odesa, Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Donetsk is much higher than in towns with populations of 50, 100, and 200 thousand people. They are facing problems," the minister said during a meeting of the state commission for nuclear and environmental safety and emergencies, the press service of the Emergencies Ministry reported on Friday.
He also said it is necessary to recommend that the Cabinet of Ministers draft a program of reorganization of the heat supply system all over Ukraine,
"It would be good to recommend that the government draft a reorganization program for the heat supply system all over Ukraine. I think this is a key task. We should propose that the premier form a respective commission."
In turn, Deputy Regional Development, Construction and Housing and Utilities Minister Vitaliy Shapovalenko said that, as of Sept. 15, 2011, about 206,000 houses were prepared for the heating season, which is 97.8% of the plan.
In addition, 99.7% of projected social and cultural facilities (schools, hospitals, kindergartens) are ready for the heating season.
