Tajikistan: Central Asia to adopt unified law on earthquakes
ITAR-TASS news agency, Moscow
2 Dec 04
Dushanbe, 2 December: A special unified law “On earthquakes”, like the
one already in force in Armenia and China, will be adopted in Central
Asian states. A agreement on this was reached at the first Central
Asian consultative meeting on reducing the risk of natural disasters
which ended in Dushanbe today, the Tajik deputy minister of emergency
situations and civil defence, Islom Usmonov, has told an ITAR-TASS
correspondent.
He said that all countries in the region were in a high seismic
activity zone. Each of them is potentially exposed to sudden
earthquakes. “However, joint efforts are needed to clean up the
aftermath,” Usmonov said.
He said that representatives from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan
and Uzbekistan had also agreed to draw up a joint plan on reducing the
risk of natural disasters. It is planned to develop the necessary
legal base and to conduct constant monitoring and train people in how
to act in the event of an emergency situation.
According to the data from the European Community Humanitarian Office,
natural disasters, including floods and earthquakes, claimed the lives
of 2,500 people and caused damage to 5.5m people in Central Asia over
the last decade, that is, to 10 per cent of the total population of
the region.