How much money required to prevent floods in Azerbaijan?

"Irrigation and Water Management of Azerbaijan" OJSC appealed to the Azerbaijani government to allocate funds to implement precautionary measures to prevent floods in the country, the company first deputy chairman Mamedsadikh Guliyev said.

"More than 500 million manat is required to carry out bank protection work along Araz, Kura and rivers flowing into them. But we understand that it is impossible to allocate this sum at a time," Guliyev said.

He said that bank protection work must be carried out on the territory of more than 1.4 million kilometers.

"The company completes work on an area of 50 km, Deputy Chairman said. The dams along the banks of the Kura River in Sabirabad, Salyan, Neftchala, Saatli are being restored to prevent mudflows. Those areas have the greatest risk of natural disasters. The state aid will be received to conduct similar activities in future. Only public funds are planned to be drawn because the procedures for obtaining foreign loans to conduct these work is very long," Guliyev said.

"It is possible to carry out bank operations in a territory of 50 kilometers by late 2010. The funds are expected to be received from the state budget," Deputy Chairman said.

This year, over 40 regions were flooded. As a result of the disaster, about 20,000 homes were flooded, 300 houses were destroyed, 2,000 homes were in disrepair, over 50,000 hectares of lands and pastures were under water.


/Trend/