QURGHON TEPPA, July 22, 2009, Asia-Plus -- Natural disasters that have hit Khatlon over the first six months of this year have left six dead, the Khatlon emergencies official Abdusattor Khoushvaqtov announced at a press conference in Qurghon Teppa, the capital of Khatlon province on July 21.

According to him, damage caused by natural disasters to the province in the first half of this year has been estimated at 3.1 million somoni (TJS), which is five times more than in the same period of last year.

Khoushvaqtov also noted that in June alone, six persons drowned because of their careless.  “The rescue team from Khatlon emergency management agency has helped their relatives search for their bodies.”  According to him, the Khatlon emergencies agency does not have special equipment for carrying out water search-and-rescue operations.  “One diving suit costs on average more than 20,000 US dollars,” noted the Khatlon emergencies official, “We have applied to a number of donor organizations for help and I hope we will receive a diving suit in the near future.”

Khoushvaqtov noted that their material and technical basis is very poor and does not meet requirements of international standards.  “We even do not have enough vehicles in order to reach sites of occurrence in time,” he said, “We need more funds to ensure adequate work of the emergency management agency, while the budget does not have such funds.”

50,000 school students drop out of schools after the 9th grade, Tajik official says

DUSHANBE, July 21, 2009, Asia-Plus /Mavjouda Hasanova/ -- 50,000 Tajik school students, primarily girls, drop out of school after the ninth grade, according to Ms. Qimmatgul Allaberdiyeva, the first deputy chairperson of the Committee for Family ad Women’s Affairs.

She noted that many of them drop out of school because their parents do not allow them attending school.

According to her, monitoring conducted by the committee in the Roudaki district revealed that the main reasons for school dropout are hard economic situation of families, early marriage and poor knowledge level of parents and girls themselves.

She said that more than 156,000 people currently study at universities in Tajikistan, and some 47,000, or more than 35 percent, of them are girls.