UNDP, in collaboration with Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Emergency Situations, has introduced an innovative technical solution to expand population coverage through a Multi-Hazard Early Warning System (MHEWS). As part of a pilot initiative, special alert broadcast devices have been installed in mosques located near populated areas, enabling the Ministry to transmit emergency messages through the mosques’ external loudspeakers. So far, 272 mosques across seven regions—Fergana, Jizzakh, Kashkadarya, Namangan, Samarkand, Syrdarya, and Tashkent—have been equipped with these devices, ensuring rapid dissemination of warnings to local communities.
Mosques were chosen due to their role as trusted social institutions and their widespread presence in settlements. Equipped with high-powered loudspeakers covering 500 to 2,000 meters, alerts broadcast externally reach all residents within range, including women, men, children, and vulnerable groups. Project estimates suggest that this system can alert approximately 6.5 million people. An additional benefit is its resilience: messages can be transmitted even if mobile networks or power supplies are disrupted.
In response to climate change and the rising frequency of natural hazards, early warning systems are critical for saving lives and reducing economic losses. Alongside mosque-based alerts, UNDP and the Green Climate Fund have also installed 28 large-format outdoor screens along major highways in densely populated areas to provide additional emergency notifications.
The project, titled “Enhancing Multi-Hazard Early Warning System to increase resilience of Uzbekistan communities to climate change-induced hazards,” is a joint effort between UNDP, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, and Uzhydromet, funded by the Green Climate Fund. It aims to modernize Uzbekistan’s early warning system into an impact-based MHEWS, focusing on floods, mudflows, landslides, avalanches, and hydrological drought in the country’s more populous and economically important eastern mountainous regions.
