ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES IN UZBEKISTAN

Environmental issues in Uzbekistan include growing concentrations of chemical pesticides and natural salts in the shrinking Aral Sea; desertification; water pollution and soil salination from industrial wastes and the heavy use of fertilizers and pesticides; and soil contamination from buried nuclear processing and agricultural chemicals. Pesticides and salts are blown from the exposed Aral Sea lake bed and contribute to desertification and respiratory health problems. Water pollution from industrial wastes and the heavy use of fertilizers and pesticides is the cause of many human health disorders. Increasing soil salination and soil contamination, caused by buried nuclear processing and agricultural chemicals, including DDT, are problems. [Source: CIA World Factbook]

The Aral Sea, half of which is in Uzbekistan, has been severely desiccated by overuse of its tributary rivers, a situation recognized as one of the world's worst environmental disasters. Enormous overdrafts on these rivers are caused by the extremely low efficiency of irrigation systems in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Without the moderating influence of the sea, winters became significantly colder and summers hotter. Vozrozhdeniye Island in the Aral Sea, now connected to the shore by shrinkage of the sea, contains the lethal remains of a Soviet anthrax weapons testing laboratory, most of which lies in Uzbekistani territory. [Source: Library of Congress February 2007 **]

Drinking water quality also is a major problem, especially in the western province of Karakalpakstan, where water is not properly distributed, and sources are exposed to various types of surface and underground contamination. Inadequate sewage disposal adds to Uzbekistan's water pollution problem: only 40 percent of the population is served by sewerage systems. Some 15,000 hectares of pastureland are lost to salt and dust annually. Soil contamination is highest in agricultural areas that have been subjected to annual overdoses of fertilizers and pesticides. Uncontrolled timber cutting has endangered the few remaining stands of forest. **

The main environmental protection agency, the State Committee for Nature Protection, nominally has responsibility for a wide variety of regulatory functions.As of 2003, only 2 percent of Uzbekistan's total land area is protected. Between 1990–1995, deforestation occurred at an annual average rate of 2.65 percent. This was mitigated somewhat by reforestation efforts that began in the late 1990s.

International environmental agreements: party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Climate Change-Paris Agreement, Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands; signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements. [Source: CIA World Factbook]

Uzbekistan Environmental Rankings and Statistics

Maydantal Plateau in Ugom Chatkal National Park, Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan scored of 43.0 out of 100 in Happy Planet Index (HPI) and ranked 44th out of 197 countries. Compiled by the British think-tank New Economics Foundation, the index measures people’s well-being and their impact on the environment through data on life satisfaction, life expectancy and the amount of land required to sustain the population and absorb its energy consumption.. happyplanetindex.org/countries]

Uzbekistan ranks 107th out of 180 countries in the 2024 Environmental Performance Index, with an overall score of 42.6 out of 100. The Environmental Performance Index (EPI) ranks countries on the basis of things like maintaining and improving air and water quality, maximizing biodiversity and cooperating with other countries on environmental problems. Prepared by researchers at Yale and Columbia in cooperation with the World Economic Forum, it is based on 47 indicators across 12 issue categories, including the number of children with respiratory diseases, fertility rates, water quality, overfishing, emissions of greenhouses gases, and the export of sulfur dioxide, a key component of acid rain. [Source: Environmental Performance Index epi.yale.edu ]

Particulate matter emissions: 46.6 micrograms per cubic meter (2019 estimate). Waste and recycling: municipal solid waste generated annually: 4 million tons (2024 estimate); percent of municipal solid waste recycled: 31.6 percent (2022 estimate). [Source: CIA World Factbook]

Total renewable water resources: 48.87 billion cubic meters (2022 estimate). Total water withdrawal: municipal: 2.3 billion cubic meters (2022); industrial: 1.2 billion cubic meters (2022); agricultural: 41 billion cubic meters (2022).

Climate Change and Carbon Emissions by Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan accounts for about 0.4 percent of global carbon emissions, ranking approximately 34th among countries for total carbon dioxide production. The nation's emissions are roughly 148.5 million metric tons, which works out to a per capita level of 3.87 to 4.27 metric tons per person. In 1992, Uzbekistan had the world's 27th highest level of carbon dioxide emissions, which totaled 123.5 million metric tons, a per capita level of 5.75 metric tons. In 2000, the total of carbon dioxide emissions was at 118.6 million metric tons. [Source: Google AI; Worldmark Encyclopedia of Nations, Thomson Gale, 2007]

Carbon dioxide emissions: 110.992 million metric tonnes of CO2 (2023 estimate); from coal and metallurgical coke: 12.845 million metric tonnes of CO2 (2023 estimate); from petroleum and other liquids: 13.437 million metric tonnes of CO2 (2023 estimate); from consumed natural gas: 84.71 million metric tonnes of CO2 (2023 estimate).

Methane emissions: energy: 848.1 kilotonnes (2022-2024 estimate); agriculture: 868.1 kilotonnes (2019-2021 estimate); waste: 261.3 kilotonnes (2019-2021 estimate); other: 4.5 kilotonnes (2019-2021 estimate).

Soviet Policy and Environmental Problems in Uzbekistan

Despite Uzbekistan's rich and varied natural environment, decades of environmental neglect in the Soviet Union have combined with skewed economic policies in the Soviet south to make Uzbekistan one of the gravest of the CIS's many environmental crises. The heavy use of agrochemicals, diversion of huge amounts of irrigation water from the two rivers that feed the region, and the chronic lack of water treatment plants are among the factors that have caused health and environmental problems on an enormous scale. [Source: Library of Congress, March 1996 *]

The Soviet approach to environmental management brought decades of poor water management and lack of water or sewage treatment facilities; inordinately heavy use of pesticides, herbicides, defoliants, and fertilizers in the fields; and construction of industrial enterprises without regard to human or environmental impact. Those policies present enormous environmental challenges throughout Uzbekistan.

Poor water management and heavy use of agricultural chemicals also have polluted the air. Salt and dust storms related to the Aral Sea and the spraying of pesticides and defoliants for the cotton crop have led to severe degradation of air quality in rural areas. The air is polluted in the Fergana Valley from the large number of factories there. Fergana was voted one of the 30 most polluted cities in the Soviet Union.

Water Pollution in Uzbekistan

Impacts of climate change in Uzbekistan Researchgate

Defoliates, pesticides and fertilizer from cotton productions have found their way into rivers, streams, lakes and ground water. Industrial pollution and mining waste has also found its way into water supplies. The Amu river is an important source of drinking water even though is contaminated with raw sewage, pesticides and fertilizer.

Large-scale use of chemicals for cotton cultivation, inefficient irrigation systems, and poor drainage systems are examples of the conditions that led to a high filtration of salinized and contaminated water back into the soil. Post-Soviet policies have become even more dangerous; in the early 1990s, the average application of chemical fertilizers and insecticides throughout the Central Asian republics was twenty to twenty-five kilograms per hectare, compared with the former average of three kilograms per hectare for the entire Soviet Union. [Source: Library of Congress, March 1996 *]

As a result, the supply of fresh water has received further contaminants. Industrial pollutants also have damaged Uzbekistan's water. In the Amu Darya, concentrations of phenol and oil products have been measured at far above acceptable health standards. In 1989 the minister of health of the Turkmen SSR described the Amu Darya as a sewage ditch for industrial and agricultural waste substances. Experts who monitored the river in 1995 reported even further deterioration. *

Polluted Drinking Water and Poor Sewage in Uzbekistan

Pesticides and fertilizer (DDT and “butfos”) have polluted drinking water. Traces have been found in the milk of lactating mothers. People who have consumed water from the Amu and Syr have had high incidence of hepatitis, typhus, tuberculosis and other diseases. "It wasn't possible to mix infant formula," one doctor said, "It made goo, like soft cheese." [Source: Library of Congress February 2007]

In the early 1990s, about 60 percent of pollution control funding went to water-related projects, but only about half of cities and about one-quarter of villages have sewers. Communal water systems do not meet health standards; much of the population lacks drinking water systems and must drink water straight from contaminated irrigation ditches, canals, or the Amu Darya itself. [Source: Library of Congress, March 1996 *]

According to one report, virtually all the large underground fresh-water supplies in Uzbekistan are polluted by industrial and chemical wastes. An official in Uzbekistan's Ministry of Environment estimated that about half of the country's population lives in regions where the water is severely polluted. The government estimated in 1995 that only 230 of the country's 8,000 industrial enterprises were following pollution control standards. *

Air Pollution in Uzbekistan

In urban areas, factories and auto emissions are a growing threat to air quality. Fewer than half of factory smokestacks in Uzbekistan are equipped with filtration devices, and none has the capacity to filter gaseous emissions. In addition, a high percentage of existing filters are defective or out of operation. Air pollution data for Tashkent, Fergana, and Olmaliq show all three cities exceeding recommended levels of nitrous dioxide and particulates. [Source: Library of Congress, March 1996 *]

High levels of heavy metals such as lead, nickel, zinc, copper, mercury, and manganese have been found in Uzbekistan's atmosphere, mainly from the burning of fossil fuels, waste materials, and ferrous and nonferrous metallurgy. Especially high concentrations of heavy metals have been reported in Toshkent Province and in the southern part of Uzbekistan near the Olmaliq Metallurgy Combine. In the mid-1990s, Uzbekistan's industrial production, about 60 percent of the total for the Central Asian nations excluding Kazakhstan, also yielded about 60 percent of the total volume of Central Asia's emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere. Because automobiles are relatively scarce, automotive exhaust is a problem only in Tashkent and Fergana. *

Pollution and Health Problems in Uzbekistan

According to experts, the most immediate impact of the environmental situation in Uzbekistan is on the health condition of the population. Although it is difficult to establish a direct cause and effect between environmental problems and their apparent consequences, the cumulative impact of these environmental problems in Uzbekistan appears to have been devastating. [Source: Library of Congress, March 1996 *]

Frequently cited in Uzbekistan's press are increasing occurrences of typhoid, paratyphoid, and hepatitis from contaminated drinking water; rising rates of intestinal disease and cancers; and increased frequency of anemia, dystrophy, cholera, dysentery, and a host of other illnesses. One Russian specialist includes among the ailments "lag in physical development," especially among children. According to this observer, sixty-nine of every 100 adults in the Aral Sea region are deemed to be "incurably ill." In 1990 life expectancy for males in all of Uzbekistan was sixty-four years, and for females, seventy years. The average life span in some villages near the Aral Sea in Karakalpakstan, however, is estimated at thirty-eight years. *

Pollution is blamed for a 50 percent increase in the infant morality rate between the early 1980s and mid 1990s. In some places 1 out very 10 babies died before the age of one, one of the highest in the world. Infant mortality increased by as much as 49 percent between 1970 and 1986 to an average of 46.2 deaths per 1,000 live births. In 1990 the average rate of mortality before age one for the entire country was sixty-five deaths per 1,000 live births. In the mid-1990s, official data estimated the level of infant mortality in parts of Karakalpakstan — which is around the dried up parts of the Aral Sea — at 110 per 1,000 live births; unofficial estimates put the level at twice that figure. In 1992 the national maternal mortality rate was 65.3 per 100,000 live births, with considerably higher rates in some regions. *

High cancer rates, high infant morality and hepatitis have been linked directly or indirectly to the use of toxic chemical in the cotton industry.

Soviet-Era Radioactive Dump Sites in Uzbekistan

Central Asia faces significant environmental challenges from radioactive waste left behind by Soviet-era uranium mining and processing. According to European Union estimates, more than 1 billion tonnes of uranium tailings and other radioactive waste are stored at sites across Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Many of these sites are located near populated areas, river systems, and regions vulnerable to landslides, earthquakes, and flooding. To address the problem, the European Union, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have funded studies and cleanup projects aimed at reducing environmental and public health risks. [Source: Kanat Altynbayev]

Among the seven uranium waste sites have been identified as high-priority locations for remediation are Charkesar and Yangiabad in Uzbekistan. Environmental officials have focused on preventing radioactive contamination from reaching the densely populated Ferghana Valley, which is shared by Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

Uzbekistan also inherited several major uranium tailings sites from the Soviet era, including those at Charkesar and Yangiabad. These facilities contain radioactive waste from decades of uranium extraction and processing. Environmental concerns focus on the possibility of contamination spreading through water systems that serve agricultural and residential areas. [Source: Kanat Altynbayev]

The country's waste sites are part of regional efforts supported by international organizations to improve monitoring, strengthen containment systems, and reduce the risk of radioactive material entering rivers and groundwater supplies. Because many water resources in Central Asia cross national borders, contamination at one site could affect neighboring countries.

Government Environmental Policy in Uzbekistan

The main environmental protection agency, the State Committee for Nature Protection, nominally has responsibility for a wide variety of regulatory functions. However, like most of Uzbekistan’s ministries, it is outside the small decision-making circle of President Karimov. [Source: Library of Congress February 2007 **]

In Uzbekistan, civil society groups such as environmental groups are subject to strict official oversight. The establishment of the social activist Ecological Movement of Uzbekistan in 2008 exemplifies how the environmental cause can be co-opted. President Islam Karimov allocated 15 parliament seats to the group, a creation of the state, ahead of general elections. [Source: Antoine Blua, Radio Free Europe, November 6, 2009]

The government of Uzbekistan has acknowledged the extent of the country's environmental problems, and it has made an oral commitment to address them. But the governmental structures to deal with these problems remain confused and ill defined. Old agencies and organizations have been expanded to address these questions, and new ones have been created, resulting in a bureaucratic web of agencies with no generally understood commitment to attack environmental problems directly. Various nongovernmental and grassroots environmental organizations also have begun to form, some closely tied to the current government and others assuming an opposition stance. For example, environmental issues were prominent points in the original platform of Birlik, the first major opposition movement to emerge in Uzbekistan (see The 1980s, this ch.). By the mid-1990s, such issues had become a key concern of all opposition groups and a cause of growing concern among the population as a whole. [Source: Library of Congress, March 1996 *]

In the first half of the 1990s, many plans were proposed to limit or discourage economic practices that damage the environment. Despite discussion of programs to require payments for resources (especially water) and to collect fines from heavy polluters, however, little has been accomplished. The obstacles are a lack of law enforcement in these areas, inconsistent government economic and environmental planning, corruption, and the overwhelming concentration of power in the hands of a president who shows little tolerance of grassroots activity. +

International donors and Western assistance agencies have devised programs to transfer technology and know-how to address these problems. But the country's environmental problems are predominantly the result of abuse and mismanagement of natural resources promoted by political and economic priorities. Until the political will emerges to regard environmental and health problems as a threat not only to the government in power but also to the very survival of Uzbekistan, the increasingly grave environmental threat will not be addressed effectively.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Times of London, Lonely Planet Guides, Library of Congress, U.S. government, Compton’s Encyclopedia, The Guardian, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Reuters, AP, AFP, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic Monthly, The Economist, Foreign Policy, Wikipedia, BBC, CNN, and various books, websites and other publications.

Last updated July 2026