Ministry of Ecology, geology and natural resources on flood situation

Kazakhstan • 25 February, 2020

Ministry of Ecology, geology and natural resources on flood situation

Today, during the press conference in the government, the Vice Minister of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources Sergey Gromov spoke about the inspection of all hydraulic structures in the country ahead of the flood period, primeminister.kz reports.

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In order to prepare for the upcoming flood season, basin inspections of the Committee on Water Resources together with representatives of emergency agencies of local executive bodies and the RSE Kazvodkhoz conducted visual inspections of hydraulic structures. Inspections issued instructions and recommendations on the necessary measures.

“According to the preliminary hydrotechnical forecast, this year, due to large snow reserves, the average rate is higher by 40-100% in some places. Seven regions were identified: Nur-Sultan, East Kazakhstan region, North Kazakhstan region, Karaganda, Pavlodar, Akmola and Kostanay regions. An anti-flood commission has been created in our ministry, and relevant plans have been developed. In the event of the arrival of large flood waters, our reservoirs will operate in transit mode,” Gromov said.

According to him, monitoring of reservoirs is carried out around the clock.

“In order to prepare for the upcoming flood season, we have created a map showing the dangerous places that are most at risk of an emergency. Taking into account the fallen snow, it is necessary to carry out work on cleaning the riverbed. We keep everything under control and the threat of flushing the dams, this is not there yet,” the vice minister said.

The ministry is now under special control over the issue of ownerless hydraulic structures.

“Since 2017, a lot of work has been done by local executive bodies, the number of ownerless ones has decreased from 49 to 10, but this work needs to be continued,” he said.

Meanwhile, according to the vice minister, these ownerless reservoirs do not pose a threat today.

It should be noted that 463 hydraulic structures in the republic need repair. In order to prepare for the flood period of the current year, in the fall of 2019, the regions carried out work on the construction and repair of 163 km of protective dams, shore protection, dredging, straightening 330 km of riverbeds of flood hazardous rivers, the construction of 116 km of drainage canals, and the clearing of 2006 km of canals, irrigation ditches and 10,314 culverts under the car and railway bridges.

To prevent and eliminate the consequences of floods, reserves of 13.5 thousand tons of fuel and lubricants, 152.6 thousand tons of inert materials, 840 thousand bag containers and 47 tons of explosives were prepared, more than 8.8 million cubic meters of snow were removed from settlements. 1,707 reception centers for the evacuated population were prepared, evacuation routes were updated, a group of forces and means of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was formed with a total number of 9 thousand people and 1,730 technical equipment pieces.

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