Uzbekistan to create online pollution map

Uzbekistan plans to create an online map of pollution that will assess the state of air, water and land resources, the press service of the State Environmental Committee reported.

Until recently, Goskomekologiya, Uzgidromet, and the Ministry of Water Management and Health conducted monitoring in various areas.

"Information about the results from other departments is periodically sent to the Committee very late, which prevents timely monitoring of the situation and taking the necessary measures. Also, monitoring is not carried out at all production facilities," said Tulegen Abdugaziev, Head of the Department for Coordination and Monitoring of Environmental Pollution of the state Committee of Ecology.

According to him, since January 1, 2021, it is mandatory to set up automatic stations for sampling and analyzing samples at sources of air pollution of newly introduced economic entities with high risk of environmental impact, as well as stationary observation points (posts) in the adjacent territory.

The plan is to create a system of automatic measurement posts for air pollution throughout the country and include the smallest suspended solids in the monitoring. A state-of-the-art information system for collecting data on monitoring results from participating agencies and business entities will also be introduced.

It is planned to update the material and technical base of the profile service of the State Committee of Ecology. Already next month, there will be 2 mobile laboratories worth about $750 thousand, which will help to carry out automatic measurements and analyses of atmospheric air. In general, this year the Committee will allocate 6 billion soums from extra-budgetary sources to provide equipment for analytical laboratories in the regions (15 in total).

With the advent of a permanent automated data flow, it will be possible to move on to the next planned goal-creating an environmental map of the Republic. It would help to assess the state of the air, water and land resources in real time, and respond quickly to possible threats. This information will be available not only to specialists, but also to all residents of the country.