DUSHANBE, April 20, 2010, Asia-Plus — All allegations and rumors that emissions from Tajik aluminum smelter operated by Tajik Aluminum Company (TALCO) have caused serious environmental problems are unfounded, Khursand Zikirov, the head of the Committee for Environmental Protection under the Government of Tajikistan, announced at a news conference in Dushanbe on April 19.
“Inspection of the environmental situation at the Tajik aluminum smelter has shown that compared to 2009 emissions have decreased 1.5 times,” said Zikirov, “A considerable decrease in emissions has resulted from production decreases and use by the smelter of modern waste-processing technologies. Over the first quarter of this year alone, TALCO has spent 5 million dollars for introduction of such technologies.”
At the end of last year, specialists from the Committee for Environmental Protection conducted a number surveys in the Sughd districts of Spitamen, Mastchoh and Jabborasulov bordering on Uzbekistan and outcomes of the surveys show that cement and metallurgical plants as well as a number of other industrial enterprises operating in the Uzbek border areas have caused environmental problems, Zikirov said. According to him, industrial waste from those enterprises has exceeded permissible level 1.5 times.
“In the meantime, emissions from the Tajik aluminum plant are below the permissible level 5-10 times,” Zikirov said.
We will recall that around 1,000 students and university professors in the southern Uzbek town of Termez on March 25 this year protested the planned expansion of the Tajik aluminum plant, saying industrial waste from the plant had caused health and environmental problems.
