DUSHANBE , July 19, Asia-Plus - Tajikistan needs some 190 million Somonis to rehabilitate and construct river bank protection works, Hiloliddin Shamsiddinov, coordinator of projects for reducing disaster risks, remarked at  news conference in Dushanbe on July 19.  

According to him, they have monitored river bank protection works in 58 districts and six cities across the republic over the past two years.  

“The monitoring results have shown that the majority of the river bank protection works in the republic have not been repaired over the past 10-15 years,” said Mr. Shamsiddinov, “At present we jointly with Tojikhydromet and Tojikkoinot agencies are preparing a special map of the most dangerous areas and possible emergency situations.”  

Shamsiddinov also noted that at present the situation on the Panj River remained stable.  “To rehabilitate river bank protection works on this river the Ministry of Emergency Situations (MES) has so far spent US$7.5 million provided by the Asian Development Bank as well 4.5 million Somonis provided by the Government of Tajikistan.”