On Tuesday June 1, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) handed over heavy machinery worth $1,768,000, funded by the Government of Japan, to the State Agency for Land Reclamation and Irrigation (SALRI) to build the country’s capacity in disasters risk reduction, according to UNDP Tajikistan.
“Climate-induced calamities have come to exacerbate an already difficult reality Tajikistan and the World are living today. Thus, to build resilient communities and sustainable economies, it is crucial for the government to be capable both systematically and technologically to reduce risks, but also to respond to and recover from disasters quickly. Last month, heavy rainfalls provoked catastrophic mudflows and floods in central and southern Tajikistan, taking human lives, leaving people homeless and resulting in damage estimated at millions of somonis and we hope that these machines will be immediately put to use to rebuild people’s livelihoods in the affected areas,” says UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Tajikistan Christophoros Politis.
A total of fifteen heavy machinery, including front-loaders, excavators, cargo vehicle and a trailer to transport heavy machinery to the sites have been transferred to the Agency. A part of the equipment will be deployed to Khatlon Oblast for recovery intervention, based on the needs assessment results.
“One of the key objectives today is to ensure food security. It has been very difficult for farmers and field workers to operate during the pandemic. The emergency situation caused by natural disasters this year have added up to the government’s concern. This is all related to climate change,” Deputy Prime Minister of Tajikistan Davlatshoh Gulmahmadzoda said at the handover ceremony.
“One of the key issues that has been raised in the UN is adaptation to the climate change. I believe that one of the ways to be more resilient to climate change is to be prepared for it and availability of modern technology is one of the solutions to this,” Gulmahmadzoda has added.
Environmental resilience building and disaster risk reduction is one of UNDP’s key priorities in Tajikistan. Alongside technical capacity building for disaster risk reduction and response, UNDP has a range of projects aimed at addressing risks related to climatic shocks on different levels through a complex set of activities, including policy improving, capacity building, and ecosystem-based approaches as sustainable and natural means for disaster risk reduction.
Davlatshoh Gulmahmadzoda, Deputy Prime Minister of Tajikistan, Christophoros Politis, Deputy Resident Representative of UNDP in Tajikistan, Tomonori Hasegawa, Charge d’affaires, Embassy of Japan to the Republic of Tajikistan, Kholmurod Rahmon, Director of ALRI and a number of development partners took part at the handover ceremony.
