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Putin to chair conference in Abakan on elimination of 2011 quake effects

Particular attention is to be paid to slum clearance plans, because shabby housing may pose great risks to people’s lives in case of more earthquakes

MOSCOW, February 18 (Itar-Tass) —— Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will chair a conference in Abakan on Saturday on the elimination of the effects of earthquakes in the territories of the republics of Tyva, Khakassia and Altai.

The government’s press-service has said the focus will be on measures to raise the seismic resistibility of the housing stock and infrastructures and to address social issues.

The conference will summarize the results of efforts to eliminate the effects of the earthquakes that occurred on September 25 and December 27, 2011 (their center was in Tyva) and consider the disbursement of more financial aid to the quake-stricken regions.

Particular attention is to be paid to slum clearance plans, because shabby housing may pose great risks to people’s lives in case of more earthquakes.

Questions will be touched upon of implementing a package of measures with the aim to ease the risks and threats to people’s lives and ensure the reliability of infrastructures. In particular, the point at issue will be the creation of a system of response to and warning of earthquakes in all highly seismic regions of the country, permanent monitoring of the condition of the housing stock, social facilities and critically important industrial enterprises and timely work to enhance the seismic resistibility of buildings and structures.

The September and December 2011 earthquakes hit over a thousand towns and villages with a population of over six million people in the disasters areas in the Republics of Tyva, Khakassia and Altai, the Krasnoyarsk and Altai Territories, and the Irkutsk, Kemerovo and Novosibirsk regions. In the hardest-hit region – Tyva – about one thousand apartment buildings and some 100 infrastructure facilities, including three thermoelectric power plants and three bridges need repairs.

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