Kazakhstan, Astana, Feb. 17 / Trend D. Mukhtarov /
Almaty is currently being built without a seismic zoning map, which creates a real threat to the seismic safety of facilities and residents in case of powerful earthquake, member of the lower chamber of the Kazakh Parliament Dariga Nazarbayeva said on Friday.
While speaking at the regular meeting of the chamber in Astana on Friday, the territory of Almaty has increased almost three-fold for the past 30 years.
"The new territory is located in mountainous zone and virtually unexplored in terms of the geological, geophysical, seismotectonic structures," Nazarbayeva said.
The seismic processes have recently intensified in Almaty and Almaty region.
She added that the republican norms of construction operations in Almaty were introduced in 1983. There was a seismic zoning map of Almaty and the surrounding areas.
"Today Almaty's seismic zoning map is not relevant to the real seismotectonic processes, because it was developed almost 30 years ago using the old system," she said. "These seismic zoning maps must be reconsidered every 10 years."
A process of developing Almaty's seismic zoning map includes the following set of operations: drilling of thousands of wells, digging of pits, coring, laboratory testing of samples across the new border of the city, electrical exploration, determining hydrogeodynamic, physical, mechanical and chemical composition of soil and others.
"So, some 175 of 283 state education buildings (61 percent) and 31 of 72 health facilities (43 percent) must be fortified," she said. These operations have not been held in residential areas."