Roads and other infrastructure in Jalal-Abad and Osh oblasts in the Kyrgyz Republic damaged by the May-June 1998 floods and landslides will be rehabilitated through a US$5 million loan equivalent approved today by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Suzak town in Suzak Rayon (District), Jalal-Abad was worst hit. Here, a portion of levee along the right bank of the Kugart River was breached, flooding a densely-populated area of 160 hectares. The flood water, 1.5 meters deep and lasting three days, caused enormous damage to public infrastructure in Suzak town. Roads, water

The Central Asian republic of Uzbekistan has appealed for international assistance after last week's floods in which the Red Cross says up to 600 people are missing or feared dead.

The United Nations said in Geneva on Friday that the government of the former Soviet country asked the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs to launch the appeal for disaster relief.

The Geneva-based International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said Uzbek officials reported at least 98 dead in the floods that hit east Uzbekistan and the Fergana

Five to six hundred people are still missing and feared dead, and many more are homeless after the Ak Su and Shahimardan rivers burst their banks on the Kyrgyzstan/Uzbekistan border on the night of 8 July 1998.
At least 90 deaths have been confirmed by authorities in Uzbekistan and at least a dozen in Kyrgyzstan. The waters swept away homes, bridges and power supplies in the Fergana Valley catching people as they lay sleeping in their beds.

The Red Crescent Society of Uzbekistan (RCSU) reported only 43 bodies have been identified. The remainder are

BISHKEK, July 13 (Reuters) - Inhabitants in east Uzbekistan, hit last week by deadly floods, were not warned of the threat of disaster by neighbouring Kyrgyzstan's weather service because of the absence of cash, a Kyrgyz official said on Monday.

At least 93 people have been killed so far in Uzbekistan's vast Fergana Valley region, defence and health ministry sources in the former Soviet republic said, while around 14,000 people have been evacuated.

Officials say thawing ice and snow in a mountainous area of neighbouring Kyrgyzstan caused a lake to overflow,

Ref: OCHAGVA - 98/0234
Background

1. On 19 May 1998, as a result of the torrential rains that hit Jalal-Abad and Osh Oblasts of the Kyrgyz Republic, the level of the Kugart river rose dramatically, broke a 100 meter-wide dam and flooded a large territory. The floods claimed one human life and caused about 7,728 people to abandon their homes. In Suzak village alone some 1,170 houses, 40 offices, 4 two-story buildings and 45 km of power transmission lines were destroyed. One bridge was demolished and 40 km of the road between Jalal-Abad and Karasuu was

Ref: OCHAGVA- 98/0208
Situation:

1. As previously reported in OCHA SitRep No. 1 (20 May 1998), severe and widespread flooding hit the Suzak rayon of Jalal-Abad, Kyrgyz Republic, caused by torrential rains starting on 18 May 1998. The situation was made worse by a broken dam on the Kugart river. As of 22 May 1998, the water was receding, the broken dam was repaired and 8,760 victims of the floods resettled.

Assessment and Findings

2. On 21 May 1998 a joint UN, NGO, IFRC/Kyrgyzstan Red Crescent Society (KRCS) assessment mission, headed