DUSHANBE, January 8, Asia-Plus — Dushanbe is expected to host international conference to discuss water-related disaster reduction risk issues in June 2008, according to the Tajik MFA.
The objective of the conference is to review the current activities and consider national and regional platforms to prevent water-related disasters.
Tajikistan is prone to frequent natural disasters because of its terrain and climate, and floods are a particularly severe disaster risk. Therefore, holding of this conference is of significant importance for the country.
The conference aims to raise disaster awareness level of the population and promote expansion of cooperation between the government and relevant stakeholders in preventing the water-related disasters and mitigating their effects.
Partners of the Tajik government in organizing and holding the conference are UNDP, UN/SDR (UN Strategy for Disaster Reduction), UNESCO, UNDESA (UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs) and the UN agencies, as well as Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Asian Development Bank (ADB), Asian Pacific Water Forum (APWF), Japan Water Forum (JWF) and International Fund for Aral Sea (IFAS).
Partners will provide financial consultative and technical assistance in organizing and holding the conference.
We will recall that President Rahmon proposed to hold such a conference in Tajikistan, speaking at the First Asia-Pacific Water Summit in Japan last month. Asia-Pacific government leaders launched a two-day regional water summit in a bid to boost their political commitment to solving water-related challenges increasingly facing the region amid rapid population growth and global warming. The summit brought together about 300 people, also including industry leaders and environmental experts, from some 40 countries and territories to exchange opinions on water shortages, disasters, insufficient infrastructure and governance, and other water-related issues.
