Belgians encouraged to have a three-day 'survival kit' ready to hand

Belgium’s National Crisis Centre and interior minister Bernard Quintin (MR) are urging people to put together an emergency kit that would allow them to survive for three days in the event of a crisis.

The advice comes as part of the centre’s new "Ready Together" campaign, aimed at providing citizens with advice on how to respond and live independently in the event of an emergency.

“The point is not to scare people, but not to bury our heads in the sand,” Quintin told RTBF.

“In our part of Europe, we’ve been fortunate enough to live in peace for over 80 years, the longest period of peace on the continent

" We should be glad of that, but the situation can change. Will this actually happen? I hope not, but we cannot say today that the probability is zero. We must be prepared."

The National Crisis Centre offers a range of advice, from drawing up an emergency plan to a list of essential items needed to live self-sufficiently for 72 hours.

Those items include important documents, contact information (family, friends and emergency numbers such as those of utility suppliers), pen and paper, first aid supplies, toiletries, phone chargers and power banks, cash, a whistle, a multi-purpose pocket knife, non-perishable food, a torch and water.

Households with pets should consider pet supplies, as well.

The centre is also urging people to sign up for free to BE-Alert, the authorities’ alert system, and to proactively find out about risks via its website.

“We simply need to raise our game,” Quintin said, noting that residents of other countries in Europe, especially those in the north, already take similar precautions.

“The authorities are doing this with resilience plans for our businesses and for the retail sector. Every citizen must also take responsibility.”

The Colruyt supermarket chain is already experimenting with putting together emergency kits for sale in about 80 of its stores.

The kits (pictured) cost about €30 and contain 3,100 calories in the form of muesli, energy bars, nuts, two meals, isotonic drink powder, coffee pods, chewing gum, tissues, a spoon and a sachet for heating food. They are intended to enable people to be self-sufficient for 24 hours.

“This kit follows on from the emergency kit previously launched by the Red Cross. Those focus mainly on first aid, whereas we focus on food,” Colruyt spokesperson Geert Elen said.

“There are circumstances where it proves useful to be able to continue living completely independently, such as during the floods in Wallonia in the summer of 2021 or, more recently, during the two-week gas outage in Mons.

"But also during power cuts that last longer than expected or occur at an inconvenient time. As a Belgian retailer, we want to meet our customers’ needs."

Depending on the results of the trial phase, the company may offer these kits in all its stores if demand proves high.