The head of the National Security Bureau, Jacek Siewiera, on floods: a natural disaster of this scale could not have been prevented

The head of the National Security Bureau, Jacek Siewiera, who visited the flood-stricken areas, spoke in “Fakty po Faktach” on TVN24 about the scale of the tragedy that has affected some regions of Poland. According to him, the question that “escapes the public debate” is: – Could the effects of this flood have been completely avoided?

– This is the first, biggest, big question. The answer is: absolutely not – he emphasized.

– It is necessary to emphasize such a more graphic dimension, which can be understood by the citizen, (of) what scale of the natural disaster we are talking about. And then in 1997, and now in 2024, rainfall in places is from 400 to even 500 liters per square meter. That means that in places, per square meter per meter, even 500 liters fell, i.e. half a ton of water – described the head of the National Security Bureau.

This means – he continued – that if we have “a small apartment measuring 50 square meters, then on the roof of this ground floor apartment only from the sky, from precipitation, 25 tons of water fell”. – We are only talking about what fell on the roof – he emphasized.

Siewiera assessed that “a natural disaster of this scale could not be prevented with the infrastructure we have.”

– Did the services fail? – Siewiera was asked.

The TVN24 guest emphasized that “every action in such a case is divided into four phases”. – The preparatory phase, the phase of direct rescue actions, the phase of removing the direct effects of floods or natural disasters and the reconstruction phase – he listed.

In his opinion, “without a doubt, much needs to be improved in the preparation phase”: – There are issues that will be clarified for many months, data will be collected. Even from the government side, we hear that a lot could have been improved, for example in the discharge from the Nysa, the prior preparation of this reservoir or proper communication, for example, of the breach and effects of the dam breach in Stronie Śląskie.

– However, when it comes to the rescue operation and the involvement of services in that area, I rate this operation good – he admitted. He said that he would give this operation a rating of “good plus”. – And five minus when it comes to removing the direct effects of the flood – he added.

– Preparation: enough to be clear, he said.

The head of the National Security Bureau was also asked to comment on the words of the chairman of the Law and Justice parliamentary club Mariusz Blaszczakwho, commenting on the fight against the effects of the flood a few days ago at a conference, said that “Tusk's state has collapsed”.

As Siewiera assessed, “Chairman Błaszczak is the chairman of the parliamentary club, he is a politician through and through, and as the chairman of the largest opposition club, he has the right to use any narrative”. – Especially since the phase of direct rescue operations has ended – he added.

– However, when it comes to an objective assessment – I am not saying that it is based on 100 percent clean data, because we do not have that available yet, but satellite data, data from meteorological stations, conversations with those experts that I had the opportunity to talk to both on site and later in the analyses – I presented this assessment – he emphasized.

– As the head of the National Security Bureau, it is not my role to evaluate the political narrative of the leader of this or that political party – he noted.

In response to the fact that it is difficult to assess this statement in any other way than as criticism of the president's actions, Siewiera replied that “he has seen many actions of a political nature carried out under this and the previous government, without a direct managerial purpose”. – So I would rather not refer to that – he noted.

– What is also important is the fact that there will be more of these visits. And perhaps it is also worth it for political leaders to be aware of this – he said.

He stressed that “the president, the head of state, unequivocally declares that he will systematically visit the site (flood areas – ed.) in order to regularly review the completion of the phase of removing direct effects.”

– And the reconstruction process, the way it will be carried out, will be closely monitored by the president – he assured.

Siewiera was also asked about the PiS government's visa scandal. “Gazeta Wyborcza” described on Monday report of the Supreme Audit Office on this matter. As reported by the daily, 366 thousand visas for citizens of Muslim and African countries were issued often without verification, and even under the dictation of PiS politicians. On Tuesday, “GW” – citing a report NIK – she said that “until the end of 2023, i.e. for 1.5 years from the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, 1,838 visas were issued to Russian citizens” as part of the Poland Business Harbor program.

The head of the National Security Bureau was asked whether he saw any risk for the state in the action related to granting visas to Russian citizens, as there could be spies among them, for example.

– I know that the Internal Security Agency drew attention to the risks and threats associated with this process. I also know that the Internal Security Agency conducted very thorough monitoring of this movement to the extent it could – Siewiera replied.

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Pointing out that it was a group of almost two thousand people, the TVN24 guest admitted that “it is a large scale”, but “monitoring is also possible on larger groups”.

– Undoubtedly, there were risks associated with this and the Internal Security Agency reported on them. However, the question remains to be answered to what extent this migration was controlled and legal, and to what extent we were dealing with criminal activity. The prosecutor's office should do a very solid job here – he assessed.