Tbilisi Agglomeration Air Improvement Action Plan – Draft Version

Tbilisi Agglomeration Air Improvement Action Plan – Draft Version

In 2020, with the amendment of the Law of Georgia on Air Protection, the territory of Georgia was divided into zones and agglomerations for the purpose of air quality management.

Rustavi is part of the central zone. The Air Quality Management Plan for the Central Zone for the years 2023-2025 was approved by the Government of Georgia on August 7, 2023. “Givugudet” was a member of the working group promoting the development of this plan and we tried to include Rustavi’s needs as much as possible in the activities of the action plan.

Our team was also involved in the discussion of the Tbilisi agglomeration Air Quality Improvement Action Plan, because some issues related to Rustavi could not be included in the Action Plan for the Central Zone due to the competence and responsibilities of various institutions, and, according to the Ministry, it would be more relevant to discuss these issues while working on the Tbilisi Agglomeration Plan.

Specifically, we mean the problem of intercity transport between Rustavi and Tbilisi, where the involvement of the Tbilisi City Hall was necessary.

We raised this issue at the meeting of the working group.

On January 29 of this year, we received the draft version of the Tbilisi Agglomeration Air Quality Improvement Action Plan from the Ministry, and we share the related details with you.

As it’s clear from the draft version, the plan includes 4 tasks and 46 activities.

Task 1.1: Reduction of atmospheric air pollution with particulate matter in Tbilisi agglomeration.

Task 1.2: Reduction of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) emissions in Tbilisi agglomeration.

Task 1.3: Improving the assessment of the air quality and the impact of air pollution on human health in the Tbilisi agglomeration.

Task 1.4: Raising public awareness regarding air protection in the Tbilisi agglomeration.

From these tasks, issues related to Rustavi are integrated into the activities of Task 1.2.

In particular:

Activity 1.2.13 – Study of technical and economic possibilities of development of regional railway transport connecting Tbilisi with neighboring cities (Mtskheta, Rustavi, Gardabani).

Activity 1.2.14 – Inclusion of  surrounding settlements in the Tbilisi public transport system (at least 3 settlements).

We have already asked the Ministry whether Rustavi is considered in these settlements and what specific measures this activity includes.

Besides all that, our main request and emphasis, which concerns the problem of transportation between Rustavi and Tbilisi, is still not considered in the draft version of the action plan. In this regard, we have sent a comment to the Ministry and we will wait for their reply.

One of our questions was also related to activity 1.3.3: “Assessment of release of substances of particular concern (hazard) from the industrial sector”. We were interested in whether the research covers only the enterprises in the territory of Tbilisi or also the nearby enterprises, for example, the enterprises located in Rustavi. We feel the need to clarify this, because during the wind, the emissions of Rustavi enterprises can reach even the city of Tbilisi, and it would be interesting to study the situation in Rustavi in this aspect. Also, we are particularly interested in why such a study was not included in the Central Zone Action Plan.

We will share news related to the development of the plan with you as it goes.