DUSHANBE, October 19, 2010, Asia-Plus  -- The Committee for Emergency Situations and Civil Defense (CES) needs 76 million somoni for purchase of modern technical equipment for rescue teams, the CES head Khaybullo Latipov announced at a news conference in Dushanbe on October 19.

“Despite funds provided by the government and technical assistance provided by international organizations, Tajik rescuers are experiencing an acute shortage of technical equipment to efficiently respond to emergencies and disasters,” said Latipov.  “Recently, we received €400,000 worth of rescue equipment from our partners in Sweden and five UAZ all-terrain vehicles from UNDP.”

According to him, 235 natural disasters have occurred in Tajikistan over the first nine months of this year and 50 persons have been killed in those disasters (168 natural disasters occurred in the country in January-September 2009 and 44 persons were killed in those disaster).

4,358 residential buildings have been damaged by disasters over the same nine-month period; 635 of them have been destroyed completely.  Damage caused by disaster to households over the report period has been estimated at more than 74 million somoni.

A total damage caused by disasters to the country’s economy in January-September 2010 has been estimated at more than 515 million somoni, Latipov said.