Earthquakes, floods, mudflows, and landslides are frequently-occurring natural disasters in all of Central Asia, causing severe human suffering and serious damage to infrastructure and local and national economies. Recent climate-related events, like the extreme cold winter in Tajikistan, make the risk of disasters even bigger. The Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies worldwide have broad experience in a variety of disaster preparedness and mitigation measures which can effectively decrease the vulnerability to natural disasters of communities living in disaster-prone areas, and improve people’s capacities to cope with and respond to the devastating effects of these events.

DIPECHO has been funding the Red Crescent separately in the Central Asia region for the past 5 years to support their disaster preparedness programmes. This new project, which will run from August 1, 2008 to October 31, 2009, is the first regional project. The added value of the regional context is to facilitate the exchange of experiences and skills, but also to enable the use of each other’s training manuals, information and educations materials, and to promote cross-border activities and visits in those vulnerable regions with country borders.

The five Red Crescent Societies will all focus on training in disaster preparedness measures and first aid to local disaster management committees, local and national authorities, school teachers and children, Red Crescent staff and volunteers, as well as the general public, TCA reported.

In Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan small infrastructural works will be implemented that can reduce the impact of natural disasters, such as the construction of dams, dykes, and irrigation canals, or the use of earthquake or flood-proof public buildings. Activities are implemented in those regions which are most vulnerable to natural disasters. For example, for Tajikistan this is Soghd region in the north of the country, while for Kyrgyzstan, the activities cover Osh, Jalal-Abad, and Batken oblasts in the south of the country.