One of the reasons that influenced the deterioration of the environmental situation in Tashkent, experts believe that the so-called wind rose is not observed during the construction of high-rise buildings.
The construction boom in Uzbekistan’s capital, which is evidence of economic development and growing urbanization, is causing the city’s architectural appearance to change rapidly.
The updated draft of the capital’s general plan, which was worked on by foreign and local specialists, was first shown in 2022 and presented to Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev in September 2023.
According to the press service of the head of the republic, the capital is home to almost 5 million people who annually need 20,000 new apartments, more than 40 schools, kindergartens, and polyclinics. Taking these factors into account, in July 2023, a presidential decree was adopted on measures to build the city of New Tashkent, which provides for the construction of residential and infrastructure facilities on an area of 19.72 thousand hectares in Yukorichirchik and Urtachirchik districts of Tashkent region.
And for the construction of new buildings in the “old” Tashkent, the president of the country declared a moratorium in February 2023. But despite this, the construction of new residential complexes and commercial buildings in the city continues.
According to the Agency for Statistics, in January of this year, construction works worth more than 530 million dollars were completed in Uzbekistan, which is more by 24.5% compared to the corresponding period of 2023. In addition, as of January 1, 2024, the number of construction organizations in the republic reached 34,629, of which 7,408 enterprises are in Tashkent.
Along with new buildings, the capital faced not only the problems of urbanization, but also the problem of air pollution. At the beginning of February 2024, the maximum pollution level exceeded the WHO recommended norm of average annual air quality value by 22 times. In mid-March, the air quality was still below the non-emergency mark.
Experts attribute the deterioration of air quality in the capital to several reasons, one of which is non-compliance with the wind rose. This prevents normal air circulation in the city.
Wind rose is a vector diagram characterizing in meteorology and climatology the wind regime in a certain place according to long-term observations.
According to Erkin Abdulakhatov, a postgraduate student at the Scientific Research
Hydrometeorological Institute of Uzbekistan (SRHMI) and an expert climatologist, it is extremely important to take wind direction into account in urban planning, as failure to observe the wind rose during construction is an important cause of air quality deterioration.
“Tashkent is called the ‘heat island’ for a reason. High-rise buildings and infrastructure have a greater impact on wind and temperature patterns than rural areas. We can’t get rid of dust storms by ignoring the wind rose,” he said.
In Tashkent, the wind blows from the plains to the mountains during the day and vice versa in the evening. This largely explains the fact that air pollution is lower during the day than in the evening. Abdulakhatov said city planners and architects should place future buildings with consideration of possible harmful effects and use wind directions to their advantage.
“For example, look at Bishkek. There they actively use coal as fuel, thus increasing harmful emissions into the atmosphere. However, to combat this, environmentalists and deputies proposed to change the work schedule of industrial enterprises taking into account the wind direction and the time when it changes. This helped reduce atmospheric pollution,” the climatologist said.
In addition, according to the expert, Tashkent city planners continue to rely on wind rose information, which is long outdated.
“We continue to build according to the wind rose scheme created for the capital in the 70-80s. And no one thinks about the fact that the wind rose has already radically changed its direction compared to the last century. As a result, we see high-rise buildings with no air circulation between them,” Abdulakhatov said.
Meanwhile, architect Alexander Kuranov believes that modern developers are not interested in going into such details.
“First of all, today developers do not observe the wind rose in their projects. Because there is no proper control of the city authorities. And they are not interested in it. In case of poorly executed work, the responsibility will fall only on the project executor, who, having sold the housing, will wash his hands of it,” Kuranov believes.
Sukhrob Ibragimov (name changed at his request), one of the capital’s developers, who has been in the construction business for about 10 years, told CABAR.asia that the firm’s management controls the process of building a new facility from obtaining a land plot, designing, selecting construction firms, providing and supporting the construction to selling the finished objects to the end consumer.
At the same time, the developer admits that they do not take into account the wind rose when designing. However, the Hokimiyat controls the construction.
“Of course, we are checked. We submit the project to construction institutes, which approve it or ask us to change certain things. There are state standards that we also have to comply with. But I can’t speak for everyone, because being in this business, I know very well that there are more privileged participants, to whom the rules apply differently.”
Besides, as Ibragimov notes, the speed of building construction today is not due to negligence and the desire for a quick project delivery, but to new opportunities.
“Now there is a different technique, a different quality and class of materials. This allows us to build objects much faster than 30 years ago,” Ibragimov says.
However, architect Alexander Kuranov disagrees with this statement and believes that construction technologies must be strictly observed. For example, the poured foundation of a future house must stand and settle for a year at least.
“The builders have alienated the entire architectural community from the city’s problems. Remember the energy collapse that happened last winter? These are the first consequences of the depletion of the city and its resources. If they continue to build at the same pace without an approved master plan, the consequences could be much worse,” Kuranov says.
According to IQ Air, a Swiss technology company that monitors air quality around the world, Tashkent has been among the top 20 cities with the most polluted air in recent years.
The situation is so bad that in the Uzbek segment of the social network Facebook, Tashkent residents actively discussed the issue of environmental migration. Users talked about buying land in mountainous areas of Tashkent region and shared a list of countries to which it is easiest to move from Uzbekistan.
It should be said that the country’s authorities are also concerned about the situation and are taking measures to improve the situation. In January this year, the Ministry of Ecology put forward its proposals to change the air quality and environmental situation in the capital.
In a number of measures, for example, it was proposed to ban AI-80 gasoline, to use fuel oil as a reserve fuel at heating plants, as well as to prohibit the movement of all types of cars manufactured before 2010.
However, in March of this year, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev instructed to allocate 60 hectares for housing construction in Tashkent in order to prevent a rise in housing prices.