Experts come up with solutions for dangerous uranium dumps

Efforts to rehabilitate some 23 uranium dumps in southern Kyrgyzstan came to a head on Thursday following a meeting of some 15 international organisations, NGOs, local authorities and environmental groups in the southern Kyrgyz town of Mailu-Suu. Organised by the Kyrgyz emergency ministry and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the event coincided with a meeting of the Kyrgyz and Uzbek working groups on the rehabilitation of mine dumps in the area, a long standing legacy of the former Soviet Union. The two groups assessed how ongoing activities by specialists from both countries were proceeding, with a particular emphasis on safeguarding the facilities. "Both dialogues are very important in terms of ensuring the environmental safety of not only southern Kyrgyzstan but the wellbeing of the [entire] Ferghana Valley, a significant part of Central Asia," Tilek Akambaev, Mailuu-Suu's mayor, told IRIN, noting the majority of dumps fell under his jurisdiction. Landslides are the greatest threat to the uranium dumps, particularly in the Tectonic, Koi-Tash and Izolit areas around the town. From 1946 to 1968, more than 10,000 mt of uranium ore was extracted from the Mailuu-Suu uranium mine and processed at local plants in the area. According to the Kyrgyz emergency ministry, there are some 2 million cu metres of radioactive waste currently being stored in 23 dumps and 13 tailings in the area. Strapped by a lack of funds to effectively address the problem, following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, local authorities had been unable to properly secure the dumps, Ashir Abdullaev, an environmental protection official for the Mailuu-Suu municipality, told IRIN. According to international and local experts, the most vulnerable dumps are those named respectively No 3, 5 and 7. "The dumps are very fragile structures - trenches with a pit filled with clay, gravel and sand, covered just with soil," Biymyrza Toktoraliev, a Kyrgyz ecology scientist, told IRIN, noting the constant risk of landslides and flooding. As part of Thursday's coordination meeting, World Bank and emergency ministry officials presented a project on mitigating the threat of a possible disaster, providing community awareness and local involvement in the process, Aleksandr Meleshko, an emergency ministry official responsible for the uranium dumps, told IRIN. Repair of roads damaged earlier by recent landslides, rehabilitation of water supply systems in the suburbs of Sary-Biya and Kok-Tash and the involvement of local companies and experts in the rehabilitation effort was also discussed. Earlier in July, the World Bank signed a grant agreement with the Bishkek government for implementation of the project worth some US $11.7 million. But while actual rehabilitation work is not expected to start until October of this year, Kyrgyz experts emphasised the need to take preventative steps around the landslide-prone Tectonic area threatening dump No 3 first.