A senior experts from Uzbek state-run think tanks notes that it is planned to install a cross-border disaster risk early warning system for Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
Uzbekistan’s Kun.uz news agency says First Deputy Director for Strategic and Interregional Studies under the President of Uzbekistan, Akramzhon Nematov, noted this while delivering a statement at a conference in Dushanbe on June 3.
According to him, disasters affecting Central Asia’s countries annually cause up to US$10 billion and deteriorate in the humanitarian situation of 3 million residents of the region.
“Therefore, it would expedient to create a special cross-border disaster risk early warning system for the population living in border areas of the two countries,” Nematov was quoted as saying.
Nematov recalled that there are more than 1 billion tons of toxic waste from uranium production in Central Asia posing threat to the population and the environment.
Warning systems in place at the sub-regional and regional levels ensure preparedness and rapid response to natural disasters, using a model that integrates the components of risk knowledge, monitoring and predicting, dissemination of information and response to warnings.
Meanwhile, some international experts note that rapidly expanding urban areas in Central Asia are increasingly vulnerable to seismic risk; but at present, no earthquake early warning (EEW) systems exist in the region despite their successful implementation in other earthquake-prone areas. Such systems reportedly aim to provide short (seconds to tens of seconds) warnings of impending disaster, enabling the first risk mitigation and damage control steps to be taken.
