Kazakh government focuses on fire-fighting equipment

Three billion tenge ($20.5 million) is allocated from the country budget for procurement of 110 fire-fighting units by Emergency Situations Ministry (ESM), Kazakhstanskaya pravda reports. As per Serik Aubakirov, head of ESM's Fire-fighting Commission, the ministry intends to purchase manual pulse fire-fighting systems and multi-purpose vehicles that create a so called “water fog” for suppression of fire spots. The ministry is also planning to build four more fire stations. ESM purchased 50 units of equipment in 2010 and 23 units in 2009. Another area the government is enchansing is snow removal. One billion tenge ($6.8 million) has been allocated from the country budget for snow-removal equipment.