Kazakhstan boosts its natural disaster prediction capabilities with technologies from Israel

Kazakhstan is already developing a digital system for flood prediction / Collage by Kursiv.media, photo editor: Denis Andreev

The Ministry of Ecology of Kazakhstan is going to collaborate with Israeli companies to simulate emergencies such as floods and wildfires.

During a meeting with representatives of several Israeli companies working in the sphere of sustainable development, Vice Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of Kazakhstan Nurlan Kurmalayev presented the Kazakhstani project of emergency prediction.

«We are ready to consider any offer from Israeli companies specializing in digital technologies, hydrometeorology and environment-related solutions to develop an IT system for simulating emergencies like floods and wildfires,» Kurmalayev said.

In turn, Israeli businessmen shared their experience of operating in the CIS. The two sides agreed to exchange information about monitoring open water and seawater as well as simulating floods.

In March, Kazakhstan was hit with massive spring floods. Several regions declared a state of emergency, while President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev called the floods «the most serious disaster in terms of scale and consequences over the past 80 years.» At the time, he promised financial and other support to all those affected by the floods.

According to official data, 19,342 property units (houses and dachas) were damaged during the floods; 8,578 properties have been acknowledged as completely destroyed. As of today, the government is building 2,578 houses and working on buying out 6,000 property units.

To improve the way the government usually deals with disasters, Vice Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Kanat Bozumbayev has instructed the Ministry of Finance to create emergency reserves in each of the country’s regions. These reserves are going to be kept permanently and must be used as relief during emergencies.

At the same time, the country is developing its digital system for forecasting and simulating floods. The system will include four modules: data collection, analysis, forecasting and simulation. The system will rely on operational and historical data from Kazakhstan Garysh Sapary, Kazhydromet and the National Center for Geodesy and Spatial Information.