Press room

Halyk Bank purchased 11 rescue huts, 18 solar panels and 1 drone as part of the social project to develop sustainable tourism in Almaty. On 30 November, a briefing was held at Ayusay Visitor Center, where representatives of Almaty Akimat Tourism Department, Emergency Situations Department, City Rescue Service and Halyk Bank were the speakers.

The mountains of Almaty will become safer for tourists – this was the main idea of the event participants. According to Sabina Amankeldi, Head of the Tourism Department, the Akimat, together with the Mountaineering Federation and the mountain community, has developed a complex of measures to ensure safety in the mountains. Specifically, 15 huts were delivered to remote areas of inaccessible mountain routes, where tourists can shelter from bad weather, get warm, and wait for rescue if they got lost or an accident happened to them. Emergency first aid kits (first aid kit, trail maps, mobile device charging station, firewood, warm blanket, and non-perishable food kit) are available in the huts. Most importantly – each hut is equipped with an alarm button, which the tourist will be able to signal rescuers with. For this purpose, there were 10 radio relay masts installed to transmit the satellite SOS signal to the rescuers’ panel with the option of voice messaging. In addition, the masts are equipped with Wi-Fi distributing function.

As agreed with Ile-Alatau National Park, rescue huts were delivered by helicopter to hard-to-reach locations high in the mountains. Their location is mapped in the 2GIS app so that tourists can become familiar with this information before hiking. In addition, work is underway to create a unified system of tourist navigation and launch of the TauGo mobile app for hiking. This application is planned to be integrated with the database of Almaty Emergency Situations Department.

Installation of equipped rescue huts is one of the components of a whole set of measures to ensure safety in the mountains. Earlier a great deal of work was done to digitize and improve the mountain trails. For safety of tourists, zones of cellular communication coverage are expanding, 2 control and rescue points in Small and Big Almaty gorges and helicopter pad in Tuyuk-Su tract are under construction.

- Without the support of our partners, it would certainly have been impossible to implement such large-scale plans. We are grateful that Halyk Bank responded to our request and supported us in implementing such a significant project for mountain safety, head of the Tourism Department said.

Total amount of funds transferred by Halyk Bank within the sponsorship - KZT101,479,000, of which: KZT47,300,000 was spent for construction of modular rescue huts; KZT39,924,000 was spent for purchase of autonomous solar power stations; KZT12,000,000 was spent for purchase of a drone for search-and-rescue operations.

- For our bank, this project is more than just numbers in the “Sponsorship and charity” column. We all are well aware that there is nothing more valuable than human life. The tragedy in Charyn Canyon in May this year clearly demonstrated that we have to work to reduce the risk of such situations to zero. It is clear that we cannot fight the elements, what we can is to ensure the ability to transmit a distress alert and find a place to hide before rescue arrives. That is why we willingly supported the initiative to install mountain huts with a function of summoning rescue teams. If, by using these huts or a drone, even one life is saved, it means that everything done was not in vain," Assel Orazbayeva, head of PR-service of Halyk Bank, believes.

From 2020 to 2021, five people died in the mountains of Almaty, according to Almaty Emergency Situations Department. The number of potential victims is evidenced by the fact that 66 people, including one child, were rescued in the mountains during the same period. The largest number of search and rescue operations (30) was carried out in the Tuyuk-Su area on the Mynzhylky plateau. Second most frequent search and rescue operations were performed at the Cosmostation on the Big Almaty Peak. 7 more search and rescue operations were conducted on the Kok-Zhailau plateau. During this time, a total of 312 people, 22 canine units and 59 pieces of rescue equipment were involved in search and rescue operations. As for the canine search, in 2021 alone, 8 people were found with its help. Volunteers from the Mountain Rescue Guide Training Center and the LIDER.KZ movement were also involved in the search for missing people.

- For efficient search and rescue operations, the Emergency Situations Department suggested purchasing a drone that, when lost persons are found, would be able to send them a voice message urging them to stay where they are and wait for rescuers. Psychological significance of this function is hard to overestimate. The person no longer panics, he/she understands that he/she has been found and rescue will come soon. Also, with such "smart" drone, you can ensure the delivery of medicine, food and vital equipment to the suffered, – Yerlan Alibekov, deputy head of Almaty Emergency Situations Department, said. 

Drones have been used by rescue forces around the world for quite a long time. Drones can penetrate into inaccessible and dangerous areas, and are also indispensable in cases where weather conditions make it impossible to fly helicopters in the mountains.

As for autonomous solar power stations, they can generate 1.5 times more "green energy" in the mountains, because solar radiation is much more powerful at higher altitudes. In addition, the snow covering the mountain tops serves as an additional radiator reflecting the sunbeams onto the panels of autonomous stations installed on roofs of the mountain huts. This will ensure a constant supply of electricity necessary for full functioning of the rescue modules.

To date, the rescue huts are at their locations and fully equipped with all required equipment and food sets.

Halyk Bank PR Service 

Tel. +7 727 2 590 301, | pr@halykbank.kz | www.halykbank.kz