Publication Name

Environment and Security

Tajikistan recently started making overtures to interna-

tional bodies on the issue of radioactive waste deposits.

Uzbekistan has so far been slower to raise international

awareness of the issue of uraniummining waste on its own

territory compared with facilities in Kyrgyzstan (see above),

although it does recognize the threat from both (State Com-

mittee, 2002: 106-107; Goldstein and Makarov, 1999)

Apart from activities related to uranium mining and their

hazardous wastes, there are three main centres of con-

cern in Kyrgyzstan: the

antimony and mercury mining and

processing plants of Kadamjai and Khaidarkan and the ore

plant in the Sumsar Valley

. The soil is contaminated with

heavy metals (as with the Kan Ore management plant)

and

other toxic substances. Moreover mercury has been stolen

from the Khaidarkan plant on several occasions. Some 150

kg of this highly toxic metal seem to have found an illegal

market in the area. The Uzbek authorities also see the Ka-

damjai antimony plant as a transboundary problem.

In Tajikistan, chemical and textile industries around

Isfara

and the chemical waste deposit of Kanibadam have been

identified as hotspots in the Sogd province. The

Kanibadam

toxic waste deposit

(for obsolete pesticides) potentially rep-

resents a similar situation to the radioactive tailing dumps

described above, with unprotected deposits vulnerable to

natural hazards, located in the vicinity of a border, water-

way and town. During the preliminary ENVSEC mission in

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