Air Pollution - The Times Of Central Asia

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U.S. Government Discusses Data From Air Quality Monitor at Tashkent Embassy

On April 22, a press conference was held at the U.S. Embassy in Uzbekistan with American air quality specialist and researcher Jay Turner speaking to media representatives about the air quality monitoring device installed at the embassy in Tashkent in 2018. According to Turner, the device monitors the concentration of air particles every hour: data is taken every 53 minutes, the remaining seven minutes are spent analyzing it, and the results are compared to the previous hour. Devices recently installed by Uzhydromet also monitor air quality hourly, and their data is roughly similar to that recorded at the U.S. Embassy. However, there are aspects that should be taken into account when comparing the results, says Turner. “It is required to follow certain protocols during the monitoring process. The equipment at the embassy follows these protocols, which I have checked myself. If we assume that Uzhydromet follows these protocols and submits its reports, it can be said that it will be the same as our data,” he said. Turner mentioned that work is currently underway to determine the differences between the monitoring devices. “To find an answer to this question, the U.S. State Department has allocated grant funds to Duke University and plans to install inexpensive air quality monitoring sensors throughout Tashkent. A portion of them has already been installed,” he stated.

Air Pollution Uzbekistan

Automatic Air Pollution Monitoring Stations Installed Across Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan’s meteorological agency Uzhydromet in collaboration with the Zamin International Public Foundation, is to implement additional automation of monitoring of atmospheric air pollution. During the first stage of the project in 2021, two German-made automatic air pollution monitoring stations were installed in Tashkent. In 2023, as part of the second stage, automatic stations went into operation in the cities of Gulistan, Jizzakh, Samarkand, Urgench, Nukus, and Termez. This year, further stations have been installed in Andijan, Namangan, Fergana, Navoi, Bukhara, Karshi, Nurafshan, and Tashkent. On March 24th, The Uzbek Ministry of Ecology, Environmental Protection and Climate Change reported on a press tour organized by Uzhydromet and the Zamin Foundation of the new automatic air pollution monitoring station in Tashkent. The station registers such pollutants as fine dispersed particles PM10 and PM2.5, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, ammonia, and ozone. At the event, Khurshid Tashpolatov, head of department at Uzhydromet, stated, “The station works online and transmits data on air quality within a radius of 5 km to the server every 10 minutes, every hour. Information on atmospheric air pollution is received by Uzhydromet, compiled into a single database, and published on the public platform monitoring.meteo.uz.” Air monitoring data is published by Uzhydromet on social networks at 9:00 am and 18:00 pm daily.

Air Pollution

Dushanbe, Tashkent Are Worst Central Asian Cities for Air Quality

According to the latest ranking of the world capitals with the dirtiest air, published by the Swiss technology company IQAir, Dushanbe in Tajikistan came in fourth-worst, and Uzbekistan's capital Tashkent took 22nd place. According to IQAir's data, the average annual concentration of PM2.5 particles in amounted to 28.6 µg/m3, which is 5-7 times higher than World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations. The ranking was 'led' by India's capital New Delhi, followed by Dhaka (Bangladesh), Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), Dushanbe (Tajikistan) and Baghdad (Iraq). In 2023 only 10 countries had air quality that met WHO recommendations. The cleanest air was in the capitals of Puerto Rico, New Zealand, Australia, Iceland, Bermuda, Estonia and Finland. Recently, Tashkent launched Air Tashkent, an open-source data platform for air quality monitoring. It was developed by the Department of Digital Development under the capital's hokimiyat (local administration), together with a group of national scientists called Amudario. The platform displays data from 10 stations which are updated hourly. Statistics for the last seven days are also available. To combat harmful vehicle emissions in the Uzbek capital, officials have opened a diagnostic center. The center will check the amount of harmful emissions in the car's exhaust, and according to those results, will put a sticker containing an RFID chip on the windshield in either red, yellow or green colors. That fits into a plan to divide Tashkent into ecological zones -- and will restrict entry of vehicles that don't comply with that zone 's specific sticker. Fines collected from those drivers will be used to fund ecological remediation. The government of Uzbekistan has recently taken active measures to combat air pollution. Among the most significant are the capital's gradual transition to electric transport, like city buses, the installation of exhaust filters at industrial enterprises, the gradual phase-out of AI-80 gasoline by 2026, and the construction of green power plants. According to the CEO of IQAir's North American division, Gloria Delphine Hammes, PM2.5 particles "kill more people than any other pollutant that exists." The main means of production of PM2.5 particles is the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas. Those particles, in turn, are responsible for the premature deaths of more than four million people worldwide each year. A separate analysis by a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Germany found that fossil fuels are responsible for 65% of those deaths. In addition, the danger of these particles is that once they appear in one place, they can be carried by the wind for hundreds of thousands of kilometers in numerous directions, harming large numbers of people in other geographical regions.

Air Pollution

Smog in Bishkek Decreases by 10-15%

Kyrgyzstan’s Ministry of Natural Resources, Ecology and Technical Supervision has announced that smog in Bishkek has decreased by at least 10-15% resulting from the government's efforts to improve the air quality in the capital city. Welcome news at a time when pollution had reached a critical level. In recent years, IQAIR has frequently ranked Bishkek among the worst cities in the world for the highest levels of air pollution. The Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) brief, “Tackling Air Pollution in Bishkek: A Road Map to Cleaner Air,” released in November 2023, stated that air pollution in Bishkek exceeded the WHO air quality guidelines by up to 30 times in winter. The brief referenced several studies on the main sources of air pollution. A UNICEF report showed PM2.5 concentrations are highest where households rely on coal for heating, in areas around the city's coal-fired thermal power plant and where solid waste is burned. UNDP-UNEP similarly cited coal as the primary source of pollution, followed by road transport. Transport was estimated by ADB to contribute around a third of annual emissions, particularly diesel trucks and minibuses. In conclusion, the ADB report recommended that to arrest air pollution, top priority be given to phasing out coal and investing in clean public transport. According to government reports, in 2023, nine residential neighborhoods comprising over 14 thousand households were supplied with natural gas. Today, 31 of the 47 residential suburbs, previously reliant on coal for heating, are connected to gas. The ministry also stated that the Bishkek landfill, which had been burning for decades adding to the city’s air pollution woes, was completely extinguished last year. Its territory is currently being reclaimed, with 850 tree saplings planted so far on an area of 2.3 hectares. In addition, 850 new environmentally friendly buses running on liquefied gas have been purchased for Bishkek. Mild weather and heavy rainfall were contributory factors but the decrease in smog this winter bodes well for the city's environment.