Over $2 million allocated for floods protection in Almaty oblast

Over 300 million tenge ($2 million) have been set aside for prevention of emergency situations in Almaty oblast, Tengrinews.kz reports citing the press-service of Almaty oblast Emergency Situations Department. 272.4 million tenge ($1.8 million) were allocated from the reserve of the oblast administration and 69 million tenge ($460 thousand) came from budgets of towns and regions. Besides, all personnel and vehicles have been made ready and steps were taken to expediently involve additional groups and vehicles in case of any emergencies related to rivers overflow during the spring months. According to KazHydroMet (national weather service) the temperature will reach 11 degrees above zero in the oblast in February. The residential houses of the towns may be flooded by overflowing rivers because of fast snow melting. The oblast has 145 flood-prone areas, including 91 areas around river beds, 25 around water reservoirs and 29 in the area of snowmelt runoff. In this relation construction and enhancement of 19.4km of dams are required. In particular, it is necessary to build a dam along Yessik river in Yenbekshikazakh region and enhance the dams in the area of Kazybayev village in Sarkan region. Besides, the utilities companies and administrations of the towns and regions have cleaned up their channels and field ditches, ditches, dam sites, bridges and bridge crossings to make sure that snowmelt and flood water enjoy a swift and unconstrained passage. An office for anti-mudflow and anti-flood measures was created in Almaty earlier. The office is called to “calculate the level of expected floods and take measures to prevent and elimination their consequences, maintain riverbed, ditches and storm drains in good condition”.