The domestic waste landfills pollute rivers and soil, and contribute to the spread of infectious diseases in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) in Tajikistan.

Gorno-Badakhshan occupies almost half of the Tajikistan’s territory, and is known in the world as ‘The Pamirs’ or ‘The Roof of the World’. The plastic waste accumulation is the acute problem in this high-mountainous remote region.

The plastic waste problem emerged in GBAO relatively recently, in the late 1990s. However, now, solid domestic waste becomes a real disaster for the region.

Waste Landfills and Dumps Are Dangerous to People and Environment

The largest municipal solid waste landfill in GBAO is located on the outskirts of Khorugh city, next to the Panj River. The waste is burned at the landfill, and the wind carries parts of the waste into the river. The landfill is open and accessible to birds and animals, and its bottom is not waterproof.

Local environmental activist and volunteer Vafobek Zamirov, who lives near the landfill, notes its danger to people and environment.

Najib Yaminov, coordinator of the investment projects in the local executive body of government in GBAO, considers the problem of domestic waste in Khorugh to be serious.

“The waste landfill of the city is in a miserable condition, and there are very few waste collection points in the city,” Yaminov said. “The mechanism for collecting domestic waste and bringing it to the landfill does not operate well. The Housing and Utility Infrastructure is in crisis, not due to a lack of specialists, but due to a lack of necessary resources.”

According to Artur Khudonazarov, director of the public organisation “Foundation for Innovative and Sustainable Technology”, the landfills that were created previously were intended for a small amount of waste.
Recently, the volume of waste increased significantly due to disposable plastic products. Therefore, the landfills are growing, and no one recycles the waste.

Khudonazarov says older generations used to believe that if water flows, it is clean.
“Many people drank water from the irrigation canal, as they never imagined that someone could pollute the water,” he said. “Today, some people build toilets right next to these canals. Therefore, even irrigating your gardens with this water is dangerous to health.”

According to the Head of the Department of Environmental Protection of Khorugh Farhod Mamadnazarbekov, they regularly clean the banks of the Gunt River together with students and schoolchildren, but the city residents throw garbage there again.

Sometimes, Khorugh residents ask the truck drivers to take their garbage to the landfill.

“Some unscrupulous drivers do not take the garbage to the landfill, but leave it on the river banks. They do not understand that they cause enormous damage to the environment by doing this,” says Mamadnazarbekov.

According to Mamadnazarbekov, the most concerning issue is that the people toss the mercury-vapour lamps into landfill, which pose a great danger to human health.

Artur Khudonazarov also believes that special attention should be paid to the mercury-vapour lamps. In Tajikistan, they are disposed only in Dushanbe and Khujand.

Garbage in the Largest GBAO Market

The largest food and clothes market in GBAO is located in Khorugh next to the Gunt River. This mountain river divides the city into two parts and flows into the Panj River, which forms a border with Afghanistan. According to the local residents, employees of some shops and cafes, and some vegetable traders throw their garbage directly into the river or ashore.

Nozim Nafasshoev, the owner of one of the cafes in the Khorugh market, assures that his employees do not throw garbage into the river. However, due to the lack of dumpsters, they have to carry the garbage to the landfill. “We clear the assigned to us territory from garbage ourselves,” Nafasshoev said. “The city’s Department of Environmental Protection fines those who do not do so.”

Halima Shakarmamadova is the owner of a perfume shop in the city market. Right next to the shop, there is a large domestic waste dump. She, just like other entrepreneurs, complains that there are no dumpsters in the market. She believes that there should be no dumps in the main market in the city centre, but separate dumpsters for different types of garbage should be installed.

“This is the centre of the city, not only local residents come here, but also tourists from different countries of the world,” says Shakarmamadova. “It stinks here in the summer so much that it is impossible to breathe. Because the dump is very close, the rats appeared in our shop, and we had to make repairs to clear the room of rats.”

The employees of the state Housing and Utility Infrastructure try to take out garbage from the city market. However, the landfill is rapidly growing again, as not only market traders, but also the city residents bring garbage there.

Waste Landfills Cause Infectious Diseases Spread

Muminsho Muminshoev, epidemiologist at the Centre for Sanitary and Epidemiological Surveillance in GBAO, considers the situation with waste in the region alarming. According to him, environment pollution with domestic waste leads to the spread of many infectious diseases in the region: dysentery, diarrhea, hepatitis A and E, paratyphoid fever, salmonellosis.

“We provide all children in the region with medicines for helminthiasis treatment, and its spread is temporarily decreasing. However, after a while, the disease is spreading again,” added Muminshoev.

Parvina Khamroeva, Head of the Department of Epidemiology of the Centre for Sanitary and Epidemiological Surveillance in GBAO, noted that pets and insects often become carriers of infectious diseases. “The insects carry infections from landfills into the residents’ homes,” she says. “In addition, these landfills are open and accessible to pets.”

Hofiz Alamshoev, Head of the Department of Sanitation of the Centre for Sanitary and Epidemiological Surveillance in GBAO, confirms that waste poses the main threat to residents of villages who drink river water polluted with waste.

The situation could be worse, but the climatic conditions of Gorno-Badakhshan restrain the rapid spread of many infectious diseases, according to the GBAO Healthcare Department.

It Is Necessary Not Only to Remove Waste, But Also to Raise Citizens’ Awareness

Artur Khudonazarov researched and analysed various studies on the problem of domestic waste. In particular, in San Francisco, USA, he observed how all types of waste are recycled. The public organisation “Foundation for Innovative and Sustainable Technology” that he manages prepared a long-term project to solve the problem of municipal solid waste in Khorugh.

During the first stage of the project, it is planned to conduct a research to determine the scale of the municipal solid waste problem in Khorugh. Khudonazarov hopes that soon, with donors’ support, they will be able to start their research.

During the next stages of the project, it is planned to develop an innovative strategy for environmental protection and submit it to the government agencies. The organisation also plans to develop a regulatory framework and a long-term strategy for social policy in the field of solid waste management.

Another important direction of Artur’s future work is information and awareness-raising work among the population.

The Department of Environmental Protection of Khorugh organises campaigns to clean up the banks of the Gunt River with schoolchildren and students. The Department carries out the awareness-raising work in schools and institutions, as well as in local media.

“The students in schools have good knowledge of environmental issues, but on the street, many of them throw garbage anywhere,” Mamadnazarbekov said. “Many adults do the same. It is necessary to strengthen the work on environmental education of people.”

Each shop and cafe/restaurant in the Khorugh market is assigned a certain territory.

“We conduct inspections, and if we see garbage on the territory of the shops/cafes, we fine their owners,” Mamadnazarbekov said. “However, some people do not want to pay claiming that the employees of the Housing and Utility Infrastructure should collect the garbage. Then, we have to sue them, but the hearings take a lot of time and effort.”

Nevertheless, fines introduction has a positive impact on the behaviour of shops/cafes owners, and they admit it themselves.

According to Mamadnazarbekov, there are positive aspects as well. For example, in a number of micro districts in Khorugh, the residents keep the territory clean. Many residents, as well as employees of organisations and institutions, participate in the clean-up activities in the city every Saturday. A particular attention is paid to the waste containing hazardous substances.

“We are constantly explaining to the population, including through the local media, that they should hand over the mercury-vapour lamps to the housing and utility services,” he said. “Then, these lamps are sent to Khujand for disposal.”

When You Realise That the Environment Is Our Home

Local volunteers Vafobek Zamirov and Mizhgona Kurbonmamadova believe that everyone should keep own house clean. However, for them, the house is not only a building they live in, but also the environment. They try to share this important idea with people in various ways.

Vafobek Zamirov is explaining to people the danger of domestic waste for many years. He is worried about landfills filled with mixed waste, including hazardous substances.

The largest landfill in GBAO is located a few kilometres from Zamirov’s village. To solve the problem of this landfill, he addressed the local authorities of GBAO.

“The head of the region Yodgor Faizov invited me, and we spoke about this topic,” he said. “The GBAO management, of course, is aware of the scale of this problem. Last autumn, the work on the creation of a new waste landfill began.”

Mizhgona Kurbonmamadova actively conducts educational work in Khorugh on domestic waste issues. Together with other volunteers, she organised a series of campaigns to clean up the Gunt River’s banks from garbage. The volunteers spoke about their work on social media drawing public attention to the problem of pollution of mountain rivers.

Unfortunately, because of the situation with the coronavirus pandemic, this work was suspended. However, their fight against environmental pollution became a good motivating example for local youth.

Will the Pamirs Become a Pollution-Free Region?

According to Artur Khudonazarov, after conducting the research, he and his colleagues will be able to support commercial organisations interested in waste recycling. Arthur observed people sorting garbage in the United States and Europe.

“We should also introduce the separate collection of waste,” Khudonazarov said. “People can earn money with this; for example, produce biogas or fertilizers from organic waste, or use paper for small thermal electric power stations.”

Nevertheless, while there are no waste recycling plants in GBAO, sorting waste is not so relevant today, he believes. Even if the residents would collect waste separately, the employees of housing and utility services would collect different types of waste into one truck and bring a mixed waste to the landfill. Therefore, Khudonazarov proposes to build several small plants for recycling of various types of garbage in GBAO.

Local Authorities Tackle the Domestic Waste Problem

Along with civic activists, the local authorities started paying significant attention to the environmental pollution issues. With the support of international organisations, they began taking measures to solve the problem of municipal solid waste in the region.

The implementation of the project for the management of solid waste in Khorugh began in June 2019. The construction of a new building for the State Housing and Utility Infrastructure of the city is underway. In Khorugh, some of the planned dumpsters for waste collection are already installed. According to Najib Yaminov, this project was developed by the initiative of the GBAO Chairman Yodgor Faizov.

According to Yaminov, more than $2.4 million of the EBRD’s funds will be allocated for the creation of a new landfill on the outskirts of the city. According to the tender results, the Azerbaijani-Turkish construction company “Hayat Group” will construct the landfill.

“They were supposed to begin the construction in March 2020, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, the construction of the landfill began last autumn,” Yaminov said. “In December, due to the weather conditions, the work was suspended, and will resume this spring.”

Within the framework of the project, a billing system for the cashless payments will be created for the State Housing and Utility Infrastructure of Khorugh. It is planned to conduct explanatory work among the population on the garbage sorting issues.

According to Yaminov, 108 dumpsters will be installed in Khorugh, and the State Housing and Utility Infrastructure will be provided with 6 special vehicles for removing domestic waste from the city.

All these measures are planned to be implemented by September 9, 2021 – the 30th anniversary of Tajikistan’s Independence. The construction of the landfill, designed for 50 years, will continue until early 2022. The old landfill will be covered with soil and a garden will be planted there.

“After the successful completion of the project, we intend to build a small waste recycling plant with the attraction of investment from the development partners,” Yaminov said. “Thus, solid domestic waste from the new landfill can be recycled.”