The state-owned waste management enterprise Maxsustrans-ISHB has been taken to court following a landfill fire in the Ohangaron district of the Tashkent province, which caused significant air pollution. The National Committee for Ecology and Climate Change announced the legal action.
According to the committee, eco-police officers launched an investigation into the deterioration of air quality in Tashkent on July 11 and 12. The inquiry revealed that poor compliance with waste disposal and burial standards triggered a fire on July 10 at a municipal solid waste landfill located at the 32-kilometer mark of the Ohangaron Highway in the Yangi Hayot settlement of the Tashkent province.
Inspectors from the Tashkent Provincial Directorate for Ecology and Climate Change immediately visited the site on the day of the incident. Following the initial assessment, the landfill's manager was held administratively liable and issued a mandatory directive to immediately extinguish the blaze.
However, a follow-up inspection by the eco-police revealed that despite the binding directive, the management failed to resolve the situation, and the fire continued to burn on July 11. Consequently, eco-police officers hit the landfill director, R.B., with a repeat fine under Part 2 of Article 91 of the Code of Administrative Liability (violation of environmental protection requirements during the collection, transportation, disposal, neutralization, storage, utilization, processing, or sale of industrial and domestic waste).
Laboratory analyses of the air pollution revealed that the fire released a massive wave of hazardous emissions into the atmosphere. Specifically, carbon monoxide levels exceeded permissible concentrations by 10.7 times, formaldehyde by 12.2 times, nitrogen dioxide by 12.8 times, sulfur dioxide by 9 times, and hydrogen sulfide by 1.5 times.
According to meteorological data, Tashkent experienced a complete lack of wind (calm conditions) on July 11 between 7:00 PM and 8:00 PM. Shortly thereafter, the wind picked up sharply, blowing directly from the east and southeast—the exact direction of Ohangaron—at speeds of 5 to 8 m/s, with gusts exceeding 10 m/s in certain areas. During this exact window, air quality monitoring stations recorded a simultaneous spike in both PM2.5 and PM10 particulate matter. Consequently, residents across various districts of the capital reported a strong smell of smoke and burning.
Based on these laboratory findings regarding the severe air pollution, an additional compensation penalty of 683.87 million soums was levied against the state enterprise Maxsustrans-ISHB. All necessary legal documentation has been prepared to forward the case to the court.
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