Activists Map Dushanbe's Environmental Problems

By Muazama Burhanova Winter 1996

The collapse of the Soviet Union and the ensuing civil war in Tajikistan has left Dushanbe, the capital and the country's most densely populated city, a legacy of environmental problems that is already having a serious impact on human health. The main center of the country's industry, Dushanbe is located in a mountain valley that traps industrial emissions in the atmosphere, a situation further compounded by extended periods of calm weather. Despite a sharp drop in the country's industrial output, air quality in Dushanbe is poor and hardly improving: lack of sanitation services has forced residents to burn leaves and trash in city streets. The city has been without reliable gas supplies for four years, leading residents to cut down and burn trees for heat. Water quality also remains a serious problem. A huge influx of refugees and rural peasants into the capital is adding to the strain.

The shutdown of environmental oversight agencies and the emigration of most of Tajikistan's specialists has left the government unequipped to monitor air and water quality, much less enforce compliance with environmental standards. For this reason, a group of environmental experts in cooperation with the Tajikistan Foundation to Support Civic Initiatives, with financial support from ISAR's Seeds of Democracy Project, decided to conduct an independent analysis of pollution in Dushanbe and present the results in the clearest possible form, an environmental map of the city. The group got third- and fourth-year chemistry students from Tajikistan State University involved in the project, first training them in practical methods for studying emissions and analyzing water, air and soil samples.

Work on the environmental map began by evaluating existing information on pollution levels in Dushanbe, using available statistical data. Based on this information, the experts mapped out the regions of pollution in the city, taking into account the location of pollution sources. Then the project staff mapped out sites for additional test samplings. The 26 students from the chemistry department learned methods for collecting samples, and 14 of the students helped perform the analyses of the samples using equipment at the Geological Administration Laboratory. Altogether, 30 samples of air taken in various parts of the city each month during the fall and winter were tested. Water samples from six spots along the Varzob and Dushanbinka rivers were analyzed for hardness, pH, mineral levels, nitrates, nitrites, fluoride, transparency and other factors. During the fall, tests were done on 21 samples of ash from leaves burned by city residents. Ash samples were primarily taken from areas along major city thoroughfares.

We determined three levels of environmental pollution in the city: satisfactory, polluted and critical, based on the following factors:

• air quality (based on a comprehensive pollution index);
• water quality (based on percentages in the samples that exceeded government standards);
• the quality of the soil along main streets (based on concentrations of heavy metals in the soil and the fertility of the soil);
• the condition of plant life and park areas of the city
• the sanitary state of the city (based on the presence or absence of trash dumping and timely trash collection);
• the health of the population (based on the risk of becoming ill depending on residence in a particular environmental zone of the city).

As a result of this research, the group prepared a final version of the environmental map and several cutaway maps, showing the city's main environmental problems requiring redress.

Air Quality

Because businesses using hydrocarbons and sulfur-bearing fuels for heat and electricity are scattered about the entire city, pollutants such as nitric oxide, sulfur, carbon, hydrocarbons and solid wastes were found in samples taken throughout the city. Additional point sources of pollution from factories include lead fumes, acid steam, vanadium oxide, benzopyrene and other highly dangerous substances-more than 100 different types in all. On average, during the early and mid-1990s, as many as 20,000 tons of harmful substances were emitted into the air each year from stationary sources alone. Recently that amount has decreased due to a sharp drop in Tajikistan's industrial output.

Lowering transportation emissions remains a serious issue for Dushanbe, even though the number of vehicles in the city's public transportation system is declining. More than 60 percent of total emissions come from vehicle exhaust. While exhaust emissions are a great danger, there is simply nothing to replace buses or cars in the city, which has no subway or trolley system.

Water Quality

The availability and quality of water is a critical problem for the city. Of about 80 factories, only seven emit their waste water into natural bodies of water. However, the slow dispersion of water into industrial waste and trash dumps, seepage into underground water tables, and poor water purification create conditions for polluted drinking water. According to data from laboratory research done by the city's sanitary-epidemiological service in January and February 1996, of 148 chemical analyses, 123 samples exceeded maximum allowable levels for particle content.

Suspended particles in the water included a large number of microorganisms. Lack of chlorine to disinfect the water forced the Dushanbe city government in March 1996 to temporarily allow the use of unchlorinated water, which could lead to new outbreaks of infectious disease. The city already has suffered outbreaks of salmonella and typhoid in spring 1995. The quality of drinking water is becoming steadily worse. The results of a private analysis we carried out indicate that only 10 percent of all samples meet government standards for chemical content, and only three percent for bacteriological content.

Sanitation

The economic crisis has led to a collapse in city services, most visibly trash collection. A large number of new, spontaneous dumps have appeared in the city. They are not equipped with trash containers and frequently take up large areas of land. Almost the entire territory of Dushanbe faces a heightened danger from this pollution. Another important problem is leaf burnings and the greater frequency of trash burnings resulting from poor trash collection. A group of chemistry students and analysts from the project group collected and analyzed ashes from leaves and soil along busy roads. Spectral analyses showed the presence of several heavy metals, including lead, copper, chrome, zinc and manganese.

Threats to City Parks

One of the easiest methods of cleaning up and "greening" city lands is to create zones of vegetation along streets. Dushanbe's favorable climatic conditions make this method a pleasant and manageable choice. However, the crisis situation in the capital, which has been without heat or stable gas supplies for four years, has led to the predatory felling of trees. The remaining trees and bushes are being eaten by domestic animals, which have increased markedly in city streets in recent years due to the influx of people and their cattle from the rural southern regions of the country, and the lack of fines for grazing cattle on city streets. Tree cutting and cattle grazing have lowered the number of square meters of vegetation per capita to 25 percent of what it should be.

These environmental problems are having a deep impact on the health of city residents, especially in highly polluted zones such as the central western section, where upper respiratory illness, hypertension, ischemia, eye afflictions and endocrine system problems are common. The collection and analysis of data on illness rates of city residents made a significant contribution to the map. Based on data from 1993, the number of illnesses per 1,000 people in relatively clean zones was 321, compared to 411 in more polluted areas.

While most of the indicators on the map show no signs of improving in the near future, the group was successful in documenting the most serious problems in a way that will make them understandable to the general public

Muazama Burhanova is a representative of the Foundation to Support Civic Initiatives in Dushanbe. Translated by Andrew Reese.

Foundation to Supoprt Civic Initiatives: 18 Rudaki, Dushanbe 734024, Tajikistan; ph: (3772) 21-67-66; <muazama@pamir.tadjikistan.su>, <root@pmair.tadjikistan.su>