DUSHANBE, June 28, Asia-Plus – Under present conditions an issue of providing safety in case of emergencies has become one of the most important socioeconomic, political, socio-demographic and environmental problems, Deputy Tajik Emergencies Minister, Abdurrahim Rajabov, remarked at an international conference on the implementation of the Hyogo Declaration on reducing and mitigating natural disaster risks that opened in Dushanbe on June 28.
“International experience shows that no country in the world is able to mitigate natural disasters risks alone, without combination of international efforts,” Mr. Rajabov said. He added that it was necessary to unify scientific-technical foundations of actions in case of emergencies for the whole international community.
According to him, the conference is aiming to consider issues related to establishment of cooperation in the filed of preventing natural disasters, and reducing casualties and damage caused by natural disasters.
The conference has been staged by MES under support of international organizations of OXFAM, FOCUS, ECHO and UN Natural Disaster Management Support Project within the framework of the implementation of the Hyogo Declaration. A world five-day conference on disaster reduction was held in from 18 to 22 January 2005 in Kobe City of Japan’s Hyogo Prefecture. Delegates from around the world in the Japanese city of Kobe agreed on the need to build early warning systems and make disaster preparation a priority. The Hyogo Declaration, in particular, says it is vital to give high priority to disaster risk reduction in national policy, consistent with governments” capacities and resources available. The forum also agreed to put the UN in charges of building a tsunami alert system for the Indian Ocean to be operational in up to 18 months. The plan urges nations to share satellite-based weather forecasting data, draw up hazard maps and work out disaster-response strategies over the next 10 years.
The conference participants include representatives from emergency management agencies of Tajikistan, Central Asia and Russia, as well as representatives from diplomatic missions, international organizations and NGOs. The conference will last till June 30. On the sidelines of the conference, an exercise involving servicemen of the Tajik MES will be held at the training ground Almosi on June 30.
According to figures provided by the MES, 33,644 people in Tajikistan were damaged by the natural disasters that hit the country for the period from 2002 to 2005. 127 people were killed by those disasters.
