What Does It Mean And Why Should A “Load Norm” Be Established?

What Does It Mean And Why Should A “Load Norm” Be Established?

Considering the increased number of enterprises and the performance in general, our team actively emphasizes the introduction of the load norm for the city, and we voice this at all meetings when it comes to the development of policies related to the improvement of the air quality of Rustavi.

The opening of enterprises is an obvious good thing, but in a city where the air is already catastrophically polluted, it should be determined what types of enterprises can be “tolerated” by our ecological situation, what types of enterprises can no longer be opened, or in case of increased productivity, what measures should be taken by these enterprises.

If enterprises, which also contribute to the generation of a large amount of dust, are built in Rustavi (or they increase their productivity), then the installation of filters by the already operating enterprises will no longer be enough to regulate the situation in terms of particulate matter in the city.

Even the representatives of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture note that in the conditions of excess of particulate matter on this level, any additional resources of additional load in the city are not considerable. In order for the city population to really feel relief after installing filters and self-monitoring, it is necessary to establish a load norm to strictly control both the issue of increasing the performance of existing enterprises and adding new facilities.

Our wish was to include this point in the Action Plan for Improving the Air Quality of the Central Zone for 2023-2025, however, as we were told at the meeting of the working group, this issue was also discussed with European experts, who said that similar practices in European countries are not known to them. Therefore, at this stage, an activity that would respond to the abovementioned challenge could not be developed. However, we think that it is necessary to address this issue.

Otherwise, even if the filter systems work properly, the cumulative impact in the city will increase and we will still have the air pollution problem.

Our team will continue to advocate for this issue and we hope that the Ministry will pay attention to work on this topic.