TURKMEN GOVERNMENT RELUCTANT TO OPENLY DISCUSS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ASHGABAT 000677

SENSITIVE

SIPDIS

STATE FOR SCA/CEN

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV SENV EIND ENRG TRGY TX RU AORC
SUBJECT: TURKMEN GOVERNMENT RELUCTANT TO OPENLY DISCUSS
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES


1. (U) Sensitive but unclassified. Not for public
Internet.


2. (U) SUMMARY: While the Government of Turkmenistan
has recently authorized environmental cleanup projects,
it appears to be motivated more by preparations for the
Avaza Tourism Zone than by a desire to improve the living
conditions of the Turkmen people. Despite having signed
the European Union's Aarhus Convention, the government is
reluctant to speak openly about environmental problems.
In addition, citizens lack the organization and resources
to focus on environmental issues. The opening of an EU-
Tacis-sponsored Information and Resource Center is the
first step in Turkmenistan's implementation of the
Convention, but the Center has not received any requests
from private individuals since its establishment. END
SUMMARY.

RUSSIAN COMPANY TO DISPOSE OF RADIOACTIVE WASTE


3. (SBU) President Berdimuhamedov issued a decree on
February 7 for a project authorizing state concern
Turkmenhimiya to sign a USD 12.4 million contract with
the Russian company Ecomet to dispose of radioactive
waste from two chemical plants in western Turkmenistan, a
carbon black production plant in Hazar and an iodine
production plant in Balkanabat. According to the decree,
the Ministry of Healthcare and Medical Industry and the
Ministry of Defense will coordinate the removal and
transport of the waste. The presidential decree did not
specify where the radioactive waste will be disposed of.
Government opposition website "Turkmenskaya Iskra"
(www.tm-iskra.org) reported that the radioactive waste
will be disposed of in the Karakum Desert, and that a
cement production plant will be built at the site to
provide cement for the construction of a storage
facility.

NEW HOUSEHOLD WASTE DISPOSAL PLANT COMMISSIONED


4. (U) The city of Ashgabat commissioned a household
waste disposal plant in the outskirts of Ashgabat in
February. According to the official press report, the
process that prepares waste for further recycling
includes separation, pressing and briquetting. One area
of the plant will sterilize and disintegrate medical
waste before disposal. It is planned that the plant will
recycle specially-treated food waste by using it in
organic fertilizers in the future.

TOXIC WASTE AND ACCESS TO ENVIROMENTAL INFORMATION


5. (SBU) According to the Ministry of Nature
Protection's report of 1990 (available on the website of
GRID-Arendal, a collaborating center of the United
Nations Environmental Programme),1,350 tons of toxic
waste -- including discarded agricultural chemicals --
were dumped in the territories of Mary, Dashoguz and
Lebap provinces. Since the time that this Soviet-era
report was written, Turkmenistan ratified the Aarhus
Convention on April 30, 1999, which requires signatories
to provide the public with access to environmental
information and to allow public input to governmental
decision-making processes on matters concerning the
environment. However, the Turkmen Government has not
made public any information about its intentions to
address the toxic waste problem mentioned in the
1990 report.

INFORMATION AND RESOURCE CENTER ON AARHUS CONVENTION

ASHGABAT 00000677 002 OF 003




6. (SBU) EU-Tacis provided a grant to the local
ecology NGO "Tebigy Kuwwat" to establish an
Information and Resource Center under the regional
project "Strengthening Public Participation and Civil
Society Support to Implementation of the Aarhus
Convention" in December 2008. During a meeting at the
Center, National Coordinator for the Aarhus Convention
Viktoriya Akopova told locally engaged Politcal-Economic Assistant
that the center is working on national educational
projects to train provincial and central government
officials about their rights and responsibilities under
the Convention. The projects involve training
seminars, public events and printed materials. The
Center can also provide environmental information to a
registered public organization upon request. Akopova
said the Aarhus Convention, as well as national
legislation, including the Constitution of Turkmenistan,
the National Environmental Action Plan and the Law of
Turkmenistan on Environmental Impact Assessment,
guarantees anyone, including private citizens, access to
information about the state of Turkmenistan's
environment. She added that in practice, government
officials prefer to work with registered environmental
NGOs. Akopova said that the Center has not received any
requests from private individuals since its
establishment.


7. (SBU) The Center views collaboration with public
organizations working on environmental issues as a means
to reach the public at large, and to educate on rights
under the Convention. (NOTE: The Center's list of
public organizations includes only those that are
registered with the government, such as the Turkmen
Society of Nature Protection, Ashgabat Gardeners'
Society, Falconers' Club, Agama Alpinist Club, Turkmen
Society of Hunters and Fishermen, and Voluntary Firemen's
Society. The list does not include unregistered
environmental NGOs. END NOTE.) In addition, the Center
works closely with government organizations to educate
officials about their responsibilities under the
Convention. Since its opening in December 1998, the
Center has arranged training seminars on the
implementation of the Convention for Turkmenistan's law
enforcement bodies, prosecutors and independent lawyers.


8. (SBU) COMMENT: The carbon black produced at the
Hazar Chemical Plant is an export item that generates
hard-currency revenues for Turkmenistan, and therefore,
it is unlikely that the government will close the plant,
regardless of its negative impact on the environment.
The President's decision to move radioactive waste from
the Caspian Sea area into the desert can be explained by
his personal attention to the development of the Avaza
Tourism Zone and the priority that it is an
environmentally safe site.


9. (SBU) COMMENT CONTINUED: The National Coordinator
for the Aarhus Convention said that in order to
effectively implement provisions of the Convention,
Turkmenistan needs a more developed civil society. The
registration of independent environmental NGOs would be a
step in the right direction. Of course, such
environmental watchdogs would be thorn in the
government's side, highlighting problems that the
government would rather ignore or deal with quietly.
Without watchdog groups, there will be major barriers to
further implementation of the Convention, because the
government has no motivation to continue the process and,
left to its own devices, would prefer to sweep these

ASHGABAT 00000677 003 OF 003


problems under the rug. END COMMENT.

MILES