Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) - In 2021, the Kazakh authorities plan to sign an Agreement on cooperation in the field of emergency situations with Turkmenistan. According to official data, the Agreement envisages:

1) monitoring of hazardous technogenic and environmental processes;

2) forecasting emergency situations and assessing their consequences; 3) provision of mutual assistance in the elimination of emergency situations.

According to experts, today both states are faced with different problems in the field of emergency situations. Thus, in Kazakhstan: 1) 75% of the territory is subject to a high risk of natural disasters;

2) up to 4 thousand emergencies occur annually with 3-5 thousand injured and dozens of deaths; 3) annually 200 thousand people are exposed to the risk from the consequences of earthquakes. (the damage caused to the country’s GDP by earthquakes reaches about US$1 billion);

3) 26% of the country’s territory, including Almaty city, is subject to the threat of mudflows; 4) annually about 300 thousand people suffer from floods.

In Turkmenistan, the Saryyazinskoye reservoir on the Murgab river with a volume of 260 million cubic meters poses a particular danger, which today is on the verge of overflow. According to experts, if this reservoir overflows, the flood may reach the Karakum Canal and most of the country will be under water. According to media reports, in 2020 there was a breakthrough of the Sultan Bent Dam (on the Murgab River). As a result, about a hundred residential buildings were flooded, as well as large areas of farmland in Mary region.

In turn, in the context of the coronavirus pandemic, in 2020 about a hundred trucks with drivers were stuck at the Temir Baba customs point on the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, which caused a delay in the delivery of goods and the death of some drivers. In addition, illegal border crossing by citizens of Turkmenistan was observed at the Garabogaz checkpoint on the Turkmen-Kazakh border.

In general, it is emphasized that the measures taken by Nur-Sultan and Ashgabat in the future will contribute to strengthening cooperation between the two states in the field of prevention and elimination of emergencies. Considering the scale of natural disasters for the entire Central Asian region, experts consider it urgent to work out and adopt such an Agreement at the regional level with the participation of all countries of the Central Asian region.