DUSHANBE, October 21, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- Natural disasters that have hit Tajikistan since the beginning of the year have caused some 100 million somoni (TJS) worth of damage to the country’s economy, Khaybullo Latipov, chairman for the Committee for Emergency Situations (CES), announced at a news conference in Dushanbe on October 20.

According to him, disasters have damaged more than 2,500 residential buildings; 500 of them have been destroyed completely.

168 natural disasters have occurred in Tajikistan over the first nine months of this year, which is 61 cases more than in the same period of last year.  44 people have been killed in those 168 disasters (in January-September 2008, 18 people were killed in disasters), Latipov said.