Excess Dust Concentration Recorded at Five Cement Plants in Uzbekistan

State committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan on ecology and environmental protection will now be monitoring the country's industrial enterprises and maintain a list of industrial pollution sources. The agency named five cement plants, which showed an excessive dust concentration levels at the end of 2019. an excess of the maximum permissible concentration of dust was recorded. The environmental state committee promises to pay special attention to the cement industry, since fine dust has a negative impact on the environment and human health.

The committee, in cooperation with the territorial divisions of the Ministry of Health and Uzhydromet, conducted atmospheric air sampling at all 13 cement plants in Uzbekistan. Five enterprises showed dust concentration above the permissible limit.

Titan Cement showed dust concentration of 4.6 times above the limit, Karakalpak Cement — 6.06 times, Turon Eco Cement — 1.8 times, Yaypangips — 1.7-1.86 and 1.36 times for Fergana Cement.

In that regard, the Cabinet of Ministers released a decree “On Enhancing Environmental Control over the Activities of Cement Production Enterprises,” which requires cement plants to establish automatic sampling and analysis stations on air pollution sources by January 1, 2022. Plants will also have to set up stationary observation points in the adjacent territories.

The goal is to have a system of automatic metering points to create a publicly accessible online map of environmental pollution. It will be possible to monitor the state of air, water and land resources, according to the State Committee for Ecology.

Meanwhile, Uzbekistan’s demand for cement continues to grow. For 2020, it should be 14 million tons, the Ministry of Economic Development of the Republic calculated. With new plants in the country, 2025 Uzbekistan will produce 20.2 million tons of cement per year.