Why We Should Attend the Deliberation on June 26th at the City Hall

On June 26^th, at 11:00, public deliberation of the “2023-2025 Action Plan on Atmospheric Air Quality Management Central Zone” project will be held.

The purpose of this plan is to improve the air quality in the central area. To achieve this goal, the plan includes four tasks:

Task 1.1: Reduction of atmospheric air pollution from stationary sources in the central zone.

Task 1.2: Reduction of emissions from motor vehicles in the central zone.

Task 1.3: Improvement of the air quality assessment system in the central zone.

Task 1.4: Raising awareness about air quality in the central area.

Let us remind you, that our team was actively involved in the development of the action plan, and we are glad that some of the issues and problems we spoke raised during the working meetings are reflected in the relevant activities of the plan.

The activities outlined in the action plan, that are developed according to our comments are further evidence that civic engagement is crucial to achieve the desired results. We must be involved in the processes by which the process of creating/maintaining a healthy environment in our city is carried on.

We offer you a list of the activities provided by the action plan which are formulated considering “Gavigudet”comments and highlighted issues.

– Activation of supervision over the fulfillment of established requirements in order to reduce the emission of particulate matter in the process of construction and storage-distribution of dusty building materials;

– The number of inspections of enterprises in the central zone has increased from 100 to 200.

– Developing a compendium of indicators for assessing the impact of air pollution on the health of the population.

However, there are some issues that our team would like to address within the framework of the mentioned plan, however, at this moment they are not reflected in the plan:

– Regular implementation and determining the minimum frequency of rounding the Rustavi industrial zone by the Department of Environmental Supervision.

This activity was rejected for the reason that it would not be effective, since the external inspection is not enough for the inspector to determine whether a violation has occurred or not, and what is the exact reason of this.

Therefore, it was considered necessary to increase the number of planned inspections instead of spending resources on this activity.

– Also at this stage, it was not possible to establish a load norm for the city within the framework of the mentioned plan. However, the representatives of the Ministry explained that the existing permit system is the main instrument for the regulation of the mentioned issue. Specifically, in the process of issuing the permit, the volume of emissions is taken into account.

Nevertheless, our team believes that the permit system does not address the fact that the air in the city is very polluted, which is further aggravated by increasing the productivity of the existing enterprises or opening new ones.

– The issue of improving the road surface in the production area is also not included in the action plan.

– In the final version of the plan, the initiative suggested by us regarding the production of statistics based on the place of residence on referral to medical institutions was not included. As the representatives of the Ministry explained, this activity was not included in the mentioned plan, because it is a separate task rather than an activity, for the implementation of which it is necessary to perform many other activities. We raised this issue because we think that without proper data, it is difficult to determine the impact of air pollution on the health of Rustavi residents, and therefore, in the future, it will complicate the development of special free health care programs for our citizens.

Regarding the issue of intercity transport raised by us within the plan, the representatives of the Ministry have repeatedly confirmed that this issue is planned to be taken into account within the framework of the Action Plan for Improving the Atmospheric Air Quality of Tbilisi Agglomeration.

This is a brief review of the issues we raised within the framework of the working group. We recommend you to familiarize yourself with the action plan at this link: https://eiec.gov.ge/Ge/Announcements/3079?fbclid=IwAR1v0XWdfVeQg7kJIqCp1lvjANd-2BAj4IpACM07-2K7xtZPmrV5cg3qME4 and on Monday, June 26 at 11:00 a.m. speak up at the public hearing.

We hope for your involvement. For those who cannot come to the City Hall, you can join the discussion online through the link below: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89607633078?pwd=SWpHZjVkaFZYTHJYemNqRmRrOEJtUT09

Webinar ID: 896 0763 3078 Passcode: 430979.

Let’s raise awareness and share the responsibility of creating a better environment.