Publication Name

Environment and Security

Industrial activities and hazardous waste

The Soviet development model for Central Asia was based

on building large-scale irrigation schemes enabling the

region to become a major cotton producer and expanding

the mining and processing industry (oil and gas, chemicals,

textile). Major industrial sites were built with towns to ac-

commodate technicians and workers. Industrial operations

in the region paid limited attention to the environment or

public health, resulting in the accumulation of pollutants in

the local environment.

With independence and the end of the planned economy

that unified the Soviet market, most of these plants had to

compete on the international market without the neces-

sary experience or assets, leading to a drastic reduction

in operations. Many of the trained technical staff left for

Russia. Over the years industrial and mining towns have

lost a large proportion of their population. However a few

facilities have maintained and even developed operations.

They remain very important sources of employment and

hard currency, but also pollution

The Soviet Union used the Ferghana valley as one of its

main sources of metal and uranium ore, exploring some 50

deposits in the area.

Consequently it is not only active industrial facilities that

constitute a threat to the environment and often to security

as well. The legacy of past operations, particularly in mining,

is also a hazard, frequently a greater one. There is also the

possibility that production may start again at old locations

Ferghana

Osh

Khujand

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