Environment and Security

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Environment and Security / 29

Ferghana / Osh / Khujand

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 24 . 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

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