The Committee on Agrarian Policy, Water Resources, Ecology and Regional Development of the Parliament of Kyrgyzstan discussed measures to reduce air pollution levels in Bishkek.
Deputy Alisher Erbaev raised the issue of coal consumption. According to him, Kyrgyzstan planned to completely abandon the use of this fuel.
«It was said that we would not use coal by 2025, and by 2040 it was planned to switch to a green economy. And now you say that we will build a solid fuel preparation plant. How should we understand this?» the deputy asked.
As the Minister of Natural Resources, Ecology and Technical Supervision Melis Turgunbaev noted, it is planned to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 16 percent by 2025, and by 15 percent by 2030.
«We are fulfilling these obligations. But nowhere does it say that we are completely abandoning coal. A study was carried out before this. It says that one of the reasons for the smog is low-quality coal from Kara-Keche. Therefore, we want to build a coal preparation plant there and produce high-quality solid fuel. But now we are far from the concept that we are completely abandoning coal,» he said.
Deputies asked if there was an analysis of incidence of diseases caused by smog.
Gulnara Saryeva, a general hygiene doctor at the Department of Disease Prevention and State Sanitary Surveillance under the Ministry of Health, said that the number of cases of bronchopulmonary and cardiovascular diseases is growing. However, there is no evidence that this is related to smog.
«We need to do research to prove this. This will take at least three years,» she said.
The head of the Department for Monitoring Atmospheric Air Pollution of the Agency for Hydrometeorology, Begayim Alipova, said that Bishkek is in 57th place in the world in terms of air pollution.
