Dear participants of the seminar!
I welcome you to the land of Yakutia and first of all let me congratulate all the women on the international holiday of the 8 th of March!
The President and the Government of Sakha Republic express their gratitude to the NF seminar participants for understanding the urgency of the problem of floods monitoring and forecasting on the rivers of northern territories .
According to the UNO, among all other natural calamities, floods cause the largest economic damage, only yielding to earthquakes in the number of victims.
On the territory of Sakha Republic, the 1998-2001 ice jam floods on the rivers of Lena and Aldan caused death of 29 people and damage of more than 10 billion rubles.
Realizing the seriousness of the existing natural threats, the NF Flooding Workshop was formed; the workshop unites organizational, technical and scientific resources of Northern countries, needed to successfully resist the calamities.
The necessity of the workshop formation was caused by a decent increase in the number of large-scale natural emergencies, registered in the last decades.
In spring of 2005, thanks to the active position of Sakha Republic , The Northern Forum and the Arctic Council EPPR group signed the agreement on the mutual activity. Also, together with the Russian Federation Ministry of Emergencies, the project “Establishment of system of prevention and informational support of catastrophic floods on northern rivers” was launched; the project was approved by the Arctic Council.
Effective and mutually beneficial information exchange took place; we discussed various scientific, technical, methodological and organizational issues, related to the forecast of flooding situations and the assessment of their risks in northern regions using modern informational technologies.
Considering that Sakha Republic has accumulated large positive experience in floods forecasting, monitoring and prevention, we suggest you to acquaint with the measures taken by Sakha Republic executive powers in terms of safe flood flows, including preventive measures.
The specialists of our Republic will have an opportunity to show the representatives of different countries some technologies used in Yakutia to resist floods and to acquaint with the advanced methods of their foreign colleagues.
We hope that the NF seminar will result in mutual understanding, support and experience exchange in terms of floods monitoring, forecasting and prevention.
I wish you and your families health, happiness and further success in your difficult and necessary work, aimed at the defense of the Republic population and territories from emergencies.  back
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