Mikhail Mishustin: “Funding for extinguishing wildfires in the regions was more than doubled this year, from 6 billion roubles to 14.2 billion roubles. In 30 Russian regions, wildfires were brought under control within the first 24 hours. In 13 regions, it was possible to prevent fires altogether.”
Meeting on emergency relief and prevention
Meeting on emergency relief and prevention
Meeting on emergency relief and prevention
Meeting on emergency relief and prevention
A meeting on preventing and mitigating the impact of emergencies. Minister of Civil Defence, Emergencies and Disaster Relief Alexander Kurenkov and Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Alexander Kozlov
A meeting on preventing and mitigating the impact of emergencies. Minister of Civil Defence, Emergencies and Disaster Relief Alexander Kurenkov and Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Alexander Kozlov
Meeting on emergency relief and prevention
Excerpts from the transcript of the meeting:
Mikhail Mishustin: Good afternoon, colleagues.
Today we will discuss a very important subject, the wildfire and flood situation.
A year ago, during a working trip to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and at the instruction of the President, we held a meeting on mitigating the impact of natural disasters in the Far East. The region faces this challenge more frequently than other regions. Today, we will also discuss the situation in the country as a whole.
First of all, we will consider the measures that have been taken recently to mitigate the impact of natural disasters and to prevent new ones.
Let us begin with wildfires.
At the instruction of the President, the Government has increased support to the regions for extinguishing wildfires. In particular, funding for this purpose was more than doubled this year, from 6 billion roubles to 14.2 billion roubles. This money has made it possible to improve aerial and land monitoring of areas in the risk zone, to involve more experts and speed up decision-making. In 30 Russian regions, wildfires were extinguished at the initial stage, within several days. This is a concrete result. In 13 regions, it was possible to prevent fires altogether. As compared to last year, the number of fires has decreased by 15 percent since the beginning of the season, and the area affected by fires reduced almost two-fold.
It is a good result, but the situation is still complicated. For this reason, a decision has been made to provide additional funding, including for extinguishing fires. A governmental directive was signed to allocate 1.5 billion roubles; one third of this money will go to firefighting measures. Some of the money will be spent on efforts to detect and eliminate fires at the initial stage and to reduce the risk of them breaking out. Some 230 million roubles will be allocated to provide the Sever interregional centre, established at the instruction of the President, with specialised technology and hardware. The centre’s employees provide assistance in fighting fires in hard-to-reach areas, including with the use of aircraft. Work is also underway to improve the legislative framework in this area. In early July, amendments to the rules of mitigating the impact of forest fires came into force. It sped up the decision-making process and made it possible to promptly engage additional forces.
The federal-level states of emergency have been declared using a simplified procedure in Yakutia and the Khabarovsk Territory, which has helped to speed up the response in the most difficult areas.
Colleagues,
The fight against wildfires is, above all, the responsibility of regional authorities, as the President has said repeatedly. The federal centre provides the regions with financing and the necessary equipment. You currently have everything you need to organise this work efficiently.
The head of state has signed an executive order that determines the responsibility of the region’s highest officials to reduce the extent of wildfires in their regions. The Government has adopted a resolution that outlines the methods to be used to calculate this indicator. The main task is to reduce the area affected by forest fires at least by half as compared to the average area over the past five years. This should act as a guideline for you, colleagues.
As for floods, the regions of the Far East are again in the risk zone. This year, localities in nine regions, Buryatia, Yakutia, the Primorye, Trans-Baikal and Khabarovsk territories, the Amur and Sakhalin regions, the Chukotka Autonomous Area and the Jewish Autonomous Area were hit by floods. Residential buildings, plots of land, bridges, roads and other facilities were affected.
The situation in the Amur Region requires special attention. Since the beginning of August, major flooding has been developing there, damaging villages and infrastructure. Unfortunately, it happens often in that region. There have been eight major floods there in the past ten years. System-wide measures are required to reduce the risks of natural disasters. The governor will report in detail about the situation in the region.
The Primorye Territory also requires assistance, including funding to restore the transport infrastructure, provide payments to the victims, carry out emergency repairs and compensate agricultural producers for the damage. A relevant instruction will be given to the Finance Ministry to work on the issue of allocating the necessary funding from the federal budget.
In fighting natural disasters it is crucial to be proactive, therefore the Government is providing significant resources to protect people floods. The three-year budget amounts to 15 billion roubles – 5 billion each year will be allocated for the construction and restoration of 32 protective waterworks. Most of them, 23 facilities with a total length of 170 kilometres, will be located in the Far East.
