Emergency Situations Minister learned about Almaty quake from Vice-PM

Tengrinews.kz

Kazakhstan Emergency Situations Minister Vladimir Bozhko [on photo] found out about the earthquake in Almaty from Vice-PM, Tengrinews.kz reports citing Vice-PM and Minister of Regional Development Bakytzhan Sagintayev as saying at the meeting in Kazakhstan Emergency Situations Ministry.

“Of course, everyone is concerned about the notification system. I think that there is a fair amount of work that has to be done. Take the recent earthquake in Almaty oblast, for example. I found out about it from my relatives. I called Vladimir Bozhko, he didn’t know about it. The system works in such a way that information gets to the minister later than it gets on Twitter,” Sagintayev said at the meeting.

He noted that the ministry's earthquake respond operations have improved compared to the previous year but still needed improvements.

 “We have to do something about it. Of course, there is a problem with cellular connection. Vladimir Bozhko, this issue has to be taken under control. We have to think it over,” Sagintayev said.

Besides, Sagintayev stressed the necessity of providing information about earthquakes from local sources, not foreign ones.

“There is another issue here. Many (in Kazakhstan) are using information from websites of U.S. seismological institutes. We have to try and become the first-reference source providing information to our people,” Sagintayev said.