As part of the pilot project, special devices are being installed in mosques located near populated areas. This allows the Ministry of Emergency Situations to quickly transmit emergency messages through the external loudspeakers of mosques.
To date, the devices have been installed in 272 mosques in seven regions: Jizzakh, Kashkadarya, Namangan, Samarkand, Syrdarya, Tashkent and Ferghana regions.
Mosques were not chosen by chance: they are traditionally considered reputable social institutions and are located in almost all localities. High-power external speakers provide an audibility range of 500 to 2000 meters. According to the project's calculations, mosques can reach about 6.5 million people, including men, women, children and vulnerable groups.
The advantage of such an alert channel is that emergency messages can be transmitted even in case of interruptions in mobile communications and power supply.
The project "Improving the integrated early warning system to increase the resilience of communities in Uzbekistan to natural hazards" is being implemented jointly by UNDP, the Ministry of Emergency Situations and Uzhydromet with funding from the Green Climate Fund. It aims to modernize the warning system, with a focus on floods, mudslides, landslides, avalanches and hydrological drought in densely populated and economically important mountainous regions of the country.
Additionally, 28 outdoor large-format screens have been installed along the main routes in crowded areas to inform the public.
