This year, the state allocated a record 52 billion tenge for the purchase of firefighting equipment.
According to the news agency "Kazinform", this was reported by Deputy Prime Minister Roman Sklyar. It is noted that last year 16 billion tenge was allocated for these purposes.
"This year, funding has been increased more than threefold to 52 billion tenge. This is an unprecedented amount for the forestry sector. It will allow the full provision of firefighting equipment to forest protection organisations in regions at risk of fires," Sklyar noted.
In August, the press service of the Ministry of Ecology reported that this year, for the first time in the history of the country's forestry industry, 47 billion tenge was allocated for the material and technical equipping of forestry institutions. It was noted that the funds were provided considering the 72% depreciation of existing equipment.
Recall that just this week, employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations contained a large fire in the Karaganda and Pavlodar regions. The area of the fire reached 45,000 hectares. During the extinguishing operation, a 33-year-old senior firefighter-rescuer, Khali Khairat, died. Five other people suffered burns, one of whom is in intensive care.
In June last year, a large fire occurred in the forests of the Abay region, resulting in the deaths of 14 employees of the "Semey Ormany" forest nature reserve. The fire destroyed over 63,000 hectares of unique relict pine forest. The damage exceeded 160 billion tenge.
Later, two officials who held management positions in the reserve and the Novoshulbinsk branch received 7 years' imprisonment each.
In July of this year, it was reported that the director of the "Semey Ormany" reserve branch was detained in the Abay region. He is suspected of timber theft. In addition to him, law enforcement officers detained over 20 people.