Harnessing Central Asia's water
Thanks to funding from the Asian Development Bank with Japanese cooperation funds, Tajikistan will strengthen its monitoring of glaciers and snow cover to prevent disasters linked to climate change. A loan has also been approved for Uzbekistan to improve water resource management.
Tashkent (AsiaNews) - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has granted a million grant to Tajikistan to strengthen its capacity to monitor glaciers and predict possible disasters, thanks to the Japan Fund for Sustainable Development in Asia and the Pacific, financed by the Tokyo government.
The ADB's permanent representative in Tajikistan, Ko Sakamoto, pointed out that ‘glaciers and snow are important for water supplies, agriculture and hydro-energy, and their rapid melting due to extreme weather conditions can cause floods, avalanches and other disasters’, which is why more advanced tools and adequate knowledge are needed to respond to threats.
The project has been entrusted to the Tajik Hydrometeorological Agency and is to be completed by 2029, mainly in the mountainous provinces of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region.
The project will enable the agency to increase the accuracy and operability of glacier and snow surface monitoring by creating a single comprehensive digital database to improve data selection, storage and analysis.
The monitoring station will be able to transmit data in real time, digitise historical data on glaciers and implement advanced technologies such as remote sensing and machine learning for effective cryosphere monitoring and disaster prediction.
To manage the unified data system, the agency's technical staff will be trained in modern data monitoring and management methods, with the active participation of women. The project will also improve early warning systems for the public about cryospheric hazards, creating disaster risk management plans, improving communication between local authorities and the public, and ensuring clarity and timeliness of warnings.
Tajikistan joined the ADB in 1998, and this relationship has led to tangible results for the population, from the modernisation of major transport routes, such as the Obigarim-Nurobod, Dushanbe-Bokhtar, Ajni-Pendžikent, Dušanbe-Tursunzade and Vose-Khovaling motorways, to the rehabilitation of major irrigation and water supply systems, as well as the construction of hospitals and schools.
The ADB has also supported the construction of transmission lines and substations, the reconnection of the country's electricity grid to the Central Asian electricity grid, and the reconstruction of large hydroelectric power plants such as those in Nurek and Golovnaja.
The ADB was founded in 1966 and has 69 member countries, 50 of which are in the Asian region. It uses increasingly innovative financial instruments and strategic partnership projects to improve people's lives, create quality infrastructure and care for the natural life of the entire planet. In addition to the project in Tajikistan, a 0 million loan with a million grant to Uzbekistan has also been approved to improve production safety and water resource management.
These funds will be used as part of the “Water resources in the Aral Sea basin with adaptation to climate change” project, modernising individual irrigation and drainage systems and increasing the country's potential for their optimal management.
The ADB will allocate 0,000 of the grant to upgrading technology, as explained by the ADB's Director General for Central and Western Asia, Evgenij Žukov, in order to “foster a culture of values in the management of land and water resources, adapting to ongoing changes in climatic conditions”.
The project will also create improved, climate-resilient irrigation systems in the Amu Darya and Zarafshon river basins, improving water measurement and modernising existing irrigation and drainage infrastructure.
In addition, the ADB will provide a technical assistance grant of 0,000 to support the government in implementing key elements of the water resources management and irrigation sector development strategy in Uzbekistan.
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30/05/2018 10:32
09/08/2019 16:30
