Bishkek, May 7, 2025. / Kabar /. The Asian Development Bank is looking at the potential to do more risk management projects in Kyrgyzstan in the future, Yasmin Siddiqi, Director for Agriculture, Food, Nature, and Rural Development in Central and West Asia at the ADB, said during a briefing as part of the 58th ADB Annual Meeting in Milan.
“We have an ongoing landslide risk management project that ADB is leading with the government of Kyrgyz Republic. This is the first of its kind for the ADB. The ADB has no other project in its history which is looking purely at landslide risk management. And this is through a combination of efforts. We are working across the country in a number of the high-risk locations that the government has identified where landslides cause the loss of houses, the loss of farmland and the loss of lives. ADB is working with the Ministry of Emergency Situations. What we are looking to do in the future is also look at the potential to do more of that type of landslide risk management project. It involves a combination of improving the slope itself,” she noted.
Yasmin Siddiqi also said that the ADB also looking at the installation of monitoring devices in the hillsideto be able to give the early warning to the communities in advance.
She added that the project is also looking at insurance. “Our project is also looking at financing and private sector participation such as the insurance market. Now in many countries there is no disaster insurance for communities like we see in western countries. In some countries when there are floods, people have insurance on their homes or on their vehicles. And they get money from the insurance company if their house is damaged or if their car is taken away by a flood,” the ADB representative said.
She stressed that one more project that the ADB will support in Kyrgyzstan is the preserving the Arslanbob walnut forest in Jalalabad as the forests help to hold the soil.
“The forest helps to stabilize the hillside hold the land together. They hold the slope and stabilize it. The Kyrgyz government has requested us to support on preserving the Arslanbob Forest in Jalalabad. This is the oldest and largest walnut forest in the world. And that is also very important for stabilizing land, supporting communities and also absorbing the greenhouse gas emissions that they face. And that project we also look forward to supporting through the glaciers Initiative,” Siddiqi said.