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EXPLAINED: What kind of state are Sweden’s bomb shelters in?

Sweden's Civil Contingencies Agency is this month sending information out to the owners of properties housing bomb shelters on what they need to do to get their shelters up to the required standard.

Published: 5 April 2022 17:03 CEST

A sign for a bomb shelter in central Malmö. Photo: Richard Orange

What condition are Sweden’s 64,000 bomb shelters in?

No one really knows.

Ahead of the invasion of Ukraine, the Civil Contingencies Agency only had sufficient funding to inspect 2,000 a year. In 2020, only about 20 percent of Sweden’s 64,000 shelters had been inspected in the preceding ten years, and of those, only 9,000 had passed. This suggests that at least 30 percent are not up to scratch.

Many of the bomb shelters are currently used as cycle sheds or storage for the people who live in the buildings where they are situated.

The agency insists, however, that “most of the shelters are fully useable” even though they may have failed an inspection and it says it expects bomb shelters to be used for other purposes during peacetime.

What are Sweden’s bomb shelters designed to protect against?

They are designed to protect citizens against the shock wave from a bomb, shrapnel, fires, ionising radiation, and debris from collapsing buildings. They also have ventilation systems to keep out poison gasses and radioactive dust.

How quickly should the owners of properties with bomb shelters be able to ready them for use?

Property owners are responsible for maintaining and equipping any bomb shelters on their properties. They are supposed to be able to convert the spaces into functional bomb shelters within 48 hours.

Kaj Lindblom, one of the two leaders of Skyddsrumsspecialisten, which has built, maintained, and renovated bomb shelters since 1973, told The Local that his company estimated that only five percent of bomb shelters could be ready within this time.

Listen to a discussion about Sweden’s bomb shelters on Sweden in Focus, The Local’s podcast.

Click HERE to listen to Sweden in Focus on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Podcasts.

About half, he said, lack functional ventilation, with many still having the same filters in place as when they were built in the 1940s. Many also still have paper toilets dating back to the 1960s and earlier (which are used in conjunction with plastic bags), rather than the more modern plastic bucket toilets. The paper toilets, he said, need to be replaced.

Another common problem, he said, was that non-specialist builders often drill through the walls of bomb shelters to bring in water or electricity, and have often not done this in the right way, losing the rooms their protective functions.

“There have been too few checks, and property owners have had too low a level of knowledge on what their responsibilities are,” he told The Local. “They’ve also expected that the Civil Contingencies Agency will not check shelters”.

Are there enough bomb shelters for everyone?

Nope.

Sweden stopped building bomb shelters in 2002, and the number of places has not kept pace with the increased size of the population. The 64,000 bomb shelters only offer sufficient places for about seven million of Sweden’s 10 million people, and many city districts built since 2002 entirely lack shelters.

Each bomb shelter is designed to provide only 0.75 square metres per person — about 85cm by 85cm — so while you will be protected, you won’t be comfortable.

They are designed to be stayed in for at least 72 hours.

So what’s being done?

The Civil Contingencies Agency is sending out a brochure to the owners of all properties which house a bomb shelter with a checklist specifying what condition the shelter needs to be in, and what equipment needs to be available.

Much of the information is available here.

“It’s most often just a case of quite simple maintenance,” Charlotte Petri Gornitzka, the Civil Contingencies Agency’s Director-General, told Sweden’s TT newswire. “Putting some oil on the hinges, doing some rust treatment, and making sure the bomb shelter equipment is available.”

The agency has also called for some of the 800 million kronor in extra civil defence spending announced last month to go towards renovating the largest bomb shelters in major cities.

On top of this, the government has launched an inquiry into whether the country needs to build new bomb shelters, with the conclusions due on November 7th.

Skyddsrumsspecialisten has designed a free-standing bomb shelter that can be erected in newly built areas of Swedish cities, where they will double as an additional cycle shelter or recycling room.

What equipment needs to be present in all bomb shelters?

According to the Civil Contingencies Agency, all bomb shelters need to feature the following equipment:

an air lock
shelter doors,
a threshold – fixed or mountable
an alternative exit, made from concrete or with a steel hatch
a ventilation unit
protective filters
pressure relief valves
a shock wave valve – one per ventilation unit
supply air ducts
a heating device
lighting
capture devices for lighting fixtures and heating elements
sealing strips for doors. These strips must be stored in a package in peacetime
taps, drains on the floor, a vent, and for shelters built after 1961, a key to open and close the drain.
toilet walls, a toilet, and water barrels
tools for dismantling any equipment or furniture in place for peacetime use and getting the shelter ready.
instructions for assembling, operating, and maintaining the shelter

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Signed by Stockholm and Washington in December, the deal gives the US access to 17 military bases and training areas in Sweden, and allows the storage of weapons, military equipment and ammunition.

The agreement was approved by a broad majority in parliament following an almost five-hour debate, with 266 MPs voting in favour and 37 against, while 46 were absent.

The main opponents, the Left and Green parties, had argued that the agreement ought to state outright that the Scandinavian country would not allow nuclear weapons on its territory.

READ ALSO:

What does the new Sweden-US defence pact mean for you?

“We want to see legislation that bans nuclear weapons from being brought onto Swedish soil,” Green Party MP Emma Berginger told parliament during Tuesday’s debate.

“Unfortunately, the government has chosen to sign an agreement that doesn’t close the door to nuclear weapons, and therefore the Green Party is going to vote no to this agreement,” she told said during the debate.

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Greens leader Daniel Helldén had argued on Monday that the agreement made Sweden “a target for nuclear weapons” since “we’re going to have 17 bases where the Americans can store (military) materiel”.

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson’s centre-right minority government, propped up by the far-right Sweden Democrats, has said the deal respects Swedish sovereignty.

“It is very clear that Sweden is a sovereign nation, and there is no other country that can force Sweden to have nuclear weapons on Swedish soil,” Defence Minister Pål Jonson insisted.

‘Naive’

The Left and Green parties, which also voted against Sweden’s Nato membership, together hold just 42 seats in parliament, which was not enough to block the agreement’s adoption on their own.

The Swedish Peace and Arbitration Association, one of the biggest critics of the move, said two successive Swedish governments insisted during the Nato application process that Sweden would have the same stance on nuclear weapons as neighbouring Denmark and Norway.

“But unlike Norway’s and Denmark’s DCA agreements, there is no clause in Sweden’s agreement against nuclear weapons being brought into or placed in Sweden,” the association’s head Kerstin Bergeå wrote in an op-ed.

In addition, Finland, which joined Nato in April 2023, “has a national law prohibiting nuclear weapons on Finnish territory and Finland’s DCA agreement refers to this law”.

A similar Swedish clause would “strengthen the Nordic region and contribute to a joint de-escalation vis-a-vis Russian nuclear weapons”, Bergeå said.

Nukes in wartime?

Sweden’s prime minister made headlines last month when he opened the door for the possibility of nuclear weapons in the country during wartime.

“In a war situation it’s a completely different matter, (it) would depend entirely on what would happen,” Kristersson told public radio broadcaster SR.

Two Left Party MPs said in an op-ed on Sunday: “That’s an incredible statement and is totally the opposite of what the Swedish people think and what Sweden has long stood for.”

Bergeå questioned whether Sweden would be able to put a brake on the United States.

“An agreement based solely on confidence is not enough in important matters such as these,” she said.

Jonson, the defence minister, has said Sweden needed to strengthen its international cooperation “to defend our freedom and democracy”.

“With the DCA, Sweden can receive early, swift and effective military support from the United States in a deteriorating security situation,” he said last month.

“The agreement acts as a deterrent and is stabilising. It reduces the risk of war breaking out and makes Sweden safer,” Jonson said.