The “monitoring and anticipation” director of the Urgence Réhabilitation Développement group considers Wednesday on franceinfo that it is necessary “to think in terms of better insulation of buildings”, a few hours before the opening of an international conference in London.
As the second International Conference for the Reconstruction of Ukraine opens on Wednesday June 21 in London, François Grünewald, “monitoring and anticipation” director of the Urgence Réhabilitation Développement group, considers Wednesday on franceinfo that we must respond to a “massive energy challenge”. His association provides many advice on the reconstruction of disaster areas, he himself carried out several missions in Ukraine.
>> War in Ukraine: how the country is preparing its reconstruction despite the bombs still raining
François Grünewald considers that to rebuild Ukraine, it is necessary “thinking in terms of better building insulation”. François Grünewald recalls that many Ukrainian infrastructures were built during the Soviet period and must therefore be rebuilt with “new technologies”.
franceinfo: Can we project ourselves like this, seek funding when the war seems so far from over?
Francois Grünewald: There is a fundamental issue in restoring hope to Ukrainians. Thinking about a post-conflict future is psychologically essential for them. But all the experience that there has been in the Balkans and in Kosovo shows us that the more we think upstream, the better we consult each other, and the better it is to move forward effectively. The Ukrainians have already started to rebuild a lot in areas like Boutcha or even in areas closer to the front.
How much can we estimate the total cost of the reconstruction of Ukraine?
We are on very high sums, because entire urban areas have been destroyed. A whole industrial fabric has been destroyed, a whole fabric of infrastructure as well and all that costs a lot of money. In addition, all these areas, like the Donbass, were built with standards [datant] of the Soviet period. It will therefore be necessary to rebuild with new approaches, new technologies and that will be very expensive.
What are the immediate needs?
One of the great weaknesses of last winter’s strategy was to have thought only in a classical way. We discovered the energy stakes quite late, when the Russians were systematically bombing. The response was very generous, but quite chaotic. We sent lots of generators, and of different formats.
“We now have to think strategically about setting up alternative energy systems, with stocks of spare parts that had not been sent last year. That’s the emergency response, but afterwards, we will have to think further: the destroyed dam, the difficulties around the nuclear power plants.”
François Grünewald, from the Urgence Réhabilitation Développement groupon franceinfo
There is a whole massive energy challenge which, in the future, will also have to be thought of in terms of better insulation of buildings, better management of infrastructures from the Soviet world. We’re going to have to start all over again in a lot of places.