At the 49th plenary meeting, the Senate of the Oliy Majlis reviewed and approved the draft Law “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Documents of the Republic of Uzbekistan”, prepared based on proposals from the Ministry of Ecology, Environmental Protection, and Climate Change.

It should be noted that in recent years, systematic work has been carried out in the republic to protect the environment, ensure environmental safety, rational use of natural resources, and improve the quality of the sanitary and hygienic environment. However, expanding construction, manufacturing, and urbanization are causing emissions to rise sharply. To prevent excessive pollution of the natural environment, all this requires a revision of the criteria for limiting or stopping the activities of objects that have a harmful impact on nature.

Today in the regions, especially in cities, emissions into the atmosphere and water by some industrial enterprises, several times higher than the norm, have a negative impact on the environment, life, and health of citizens. For example, this process is constantly monitored in industries such as energy, oil and gas, chemicals, metallurgy, and building materials, which are major industries.

Based on the monitoring results, it was established that over the past year, the level of pollution in 552 pollution sources of 284 organizations exceeded the established norm. In particular, the level of pollution exceeded the established norm in 152 sources of 77 organizations discharging into the atmosphere, in 323 sources of 169 organizations discharging wastewater into water bodies, and in 77 sources of 38 organizations polluting soil. In addition, it was found that the level of pollution in 269 sources of 98 organizations exceeded the norm regularly. This causes environmental degradation, a negative impact on the lives of citizens, as well as legitimate public protests.

Taking into account the above reasons and factors, changes are being made to the Laws of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On Nature Protection”, “On Atmospheric Air Protection” and “On Environmental Control”. These amendments provide for the restriction and suspension of the activities of sources of environmental pollution that exceed the norm, enterprises, organizations, structures, and other objects for no more than ten working days. The goal is to prevent excessive environmental pollution and danger to the life and health of the population.

In addition, changes to the law are intended to increase the responsibility of competent government bodies.