The Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament) today endorsed a law on ratification of an agreement between Tajikistan and the World Bank on financing the Strengthening Critical Infrastructure Against Natural Hazards Project.
Presenting the bill to lawmakers, Deputy Finance Minister, Ms. Mehrinamo Jonmamadova, noted that the project provides for constructing 18 bridges in the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) and 31 kilometers of river embankments in the Khatlon province.
She said the World Bank would provide US$50 million, including US$25 million in a form of grant, for implementation of the project.
Minister of Transport Khudoyor Khudoyorbekov noted that it was the first agreement signed between Tajikistan and the World Bank in the sphere of prevention of natural disasters.
“The damage caused by natural disasters to the country’s road sector over the past five years has been estimate at some 63 million somoni,” the minister noted.
The head of the Agency for Land Reclamation and Irrigation, Kholmurod Rahmonzoda, noted that there are about 947 rivers longer than 10 kilometers with a total length of more than 30,000 kilometers in Tajikistan.
According to him, the majority of rivers in the country overflow their banks in the spring causing damage to the country’s economy.
All representatives of the government assured that the agreement will be implemented in time.
Recall, Majlisi Namoyandagon Speaker Shukurjon Zuhurov on December 21 proposed on to postpone consideration of the issue until heads of ministries and agencies responsible for implementation of this project report to the parliament on the work done and plans. He, in particular, noted that “millions of somoni are spent every year for rehabilitation and construction of riverbank protection works but nobody reports on the work done.”
The mentioned project aims at strengthening Tajikistan’s capacity to prepare for, mitigate and respond to natural disasters. Related investments will help Tajikistan—a country prone to floods, mudslides, and earthquakes, and exposed to considerable climate change risks—to be able to prepare for potential natural disasters and to improve critical infrastructure.
Through the Strengthening Critical Infrastructure Against Natural Hazards Project, the World Bank and the Government of Tajikistan aim to protect the population and people’s livelihoods from the impacts of natural disasters and climate change risks, by improving the national capacity to effectively mitigate and respond to natural disasters.
The project will finance the modernization of crisis management centers under the Committee for Emergency Situations and Civil Defense to generate timely early warnings, crisis communication and emergency preparedness and response. It will improve the seismic hazard assessment capacity of the Institute of Seismology and Earthquake Engineering for more accurate disaster risk identification. In addition, the project will support the Government in preparing a financial protection strategy to mitigate the risk of fiscal shocks caused by disasters.
In addition, the institutional strengthening will be complemented by the reconstruction of key infrastructure, including roads, bridges, and river embankments in the Khatlon province and GBAO, which were damaged during the 2015 disasters.
