Lean Environmental Solutions

Guide · Kyrgyzstan

Mudflow and landslide

Mudflows bury yards, fields, cellars and animals in minutes, and 2026 had the most in Kyrgyzstan for decades.

Who and when

Valley-floor and gully villages, riverside orchards and fields, canals. Worst in the south (Batken, Osh, Jalal-Abad) and Talas. Season: April to July. Mudflows cannot be timed: forecasts say where they are likely, not when.

Getting worse.

Right now

Right now (autumn 2026)

  • First half of 2026: 348 mudflows, the most in 30–40 years; 8 dead; 668 ha of farmland damaged.
  • 13 Jul 2026, Nooken (Jalal-Abad): gardens buried, food cellars damaged, sheep and poultry lost, water cut for a week.
  • Protection works are being designed at 21 high-risk sites in Issyk-Kul, Osh, Naryn and Jalal-Abad (April 2026).
Before

Before: get ready

Crops and trees

  1. Map your mudflow line before spring. Is the house, barn, hay, cellar or orchard in a gully, on a river bank or on the fan where a stream comes out?
  2. Clean ditches and reinforce their banks before April. Keep rubbish out of ditches.
  3. On slopes, sow grass or a cover crop between rows in autumn; in dry places mow it in spring (general practice, check locally).
  4. Spread straw mulch on bare slopes (general practice, check locally).
  5. On steep plots, build terraces and tree rows in the dry season (general practice, check locally).

Animals and stores

  1. Keep pens, hay, night corrals and food cellars off stream beds and fans.
  2. Get the warnings: meteo.kg or t.me/meteokgbot. On a warning, move animals and stay out of gorges.

Money: compulsory home insurance covers mudflow and landslide (village home 600 som a year, payout up to 500,000 som). An uninsured home gets no state money to rebuild. Barns, animals and crops: not confirmed.

During

During: when it hits

  1. Leave the channel and the valley floor. Go to the side and uphill.
  2. Don't try to cross by car. On 24 Jun 2026 a mudflow swept a car off the Osh–Alay road and 6 people died.
  3. Call 112.
  4. Stay out of gorges while a warning is on.
  5. Landslide: keep off the slope. Cracks above the slip often mean more is coming (general practice, check locally).
After

After: recover

First days

  • Keep off the slope until it has been checked.
  • Take photos with date, time and place before you clear anything.
  • Drink bottled or boiled water. Don't switch on a flooded pump until an electrician checks it (general practice, check locally).
  • Dead animals: sudden death with blood from the openings may be anthrax; don't open the body. Never sell or eat the meat. Call your district vet.

First weeks

  • Clean and test the well before you drink from it again (general practice, check locally).
  • Silt under 5 cm: mix it in. Deeper sand may need removing. Test the soil (general practice, check locally).
  • Throw away food crops whose edible part was under mud or water (general practice, check locally).

Money and help

  • Write down every call (date, name) and follow up in writing.
  • A commission assesses damage on site. Take your home insurance policy and photos to it or the ayil okmotu. After Nooken, the Red Crescent gave KGS 34,270 cash to each of 318 families picked by need; it does not cover farm recovery.
Build back better

Build back better

  • Don't rebuild in the channel.
  • Keep cellars, hay and pens out of the flow path.
  • Insure the house. It decides whether the state helps.
  • Protect slopes with cover, mulch or terraces. Dams are state work.

What the farm check looks for

House, barn, hay, cellar or orchard in a gully, on a fan or a river bank. Bare slopes. Home not insured.

Get a free farm check

Sources