Central Zone Air Management Plan – What Activities Should Be Completed by June 2024?

Central Zone Air Management Plan – What Activities Should Be Completed by June 2024?

As part of fulfilling Georgia’s EU Association Agreement obligations and harmonizing with EU legislation, changes were made to Georgia’s “Law on Atmospheric Air Protection” in 2020. According to the updates, atmospheric air quality monitoring and management throughout Georgia is carried out in zones and agglomerations. For zones and agglomerations where levels of main harmful substances exceed permissible limits, air quality management action plans are developed.

The main air quality challenges and biggest threats in Georgia are considered to be the following pollutants:

– Particulate matter (PM10 and PM5)

– Nitrogen dioxide (NO2)

Preliminary studies showed that air quality was worst in major cities and large industrial facilities of Georgia’s central zone (Rustavi, Tbilisi, Gardabani). Accordingly, Georgia’s Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture developed a document – “2023-2025 Atmospheric Air Quality Management Plan for the Central Zone,” which outlines what work should be done by years and quarters to improve atmospheric air in the central zone.

The Ministry submits progress reports on the action plan twice a year: an interim report with 6-month data by the end of August and an annual report by the end of February of the following year. Document review is public and citizens can attend if desired.

The 2023 monitoring report for the action plan has already been published, and you can review our overview of the report and plan progress at this link.

We want to inform you about activities that should be completed in the first half of 2024 according to the plan, information about which we will learn in this year’s interim report. According to the action plan, we have two activities scheduled for completion in the first half of 2024:

These activities are:

1.1. Identifying activities subject to environmental technical regulations that represent significant pollution sources and establishing specific mandatory actions to reduce particulate matter pollution.

According to the plan, this activity will be considered complete after approval of a normative act amending Government Resolution No. 17 of January 3, 2014 “On Approval of Environmental Technical Regulations.” For this, analysis of inventory data of harmful substances emitted from stationary sources is ongoing to identify sectors that represent significant sources of air pollution.

The agency responsible for implementing this activity is the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture/Department of Environment and Climate Change.

Partner agencies – Environmental Supervision Department and National Environmental Agency.

3.6. Assessment of Rustavi city population exposure to excessive concentrations of harmful substances (PM10, PM2.5, NO2).

According to the action plan, this activity will be considered complete after developing a research protocol and conducting the study.

Under this activity, with involvement of the French Public Health Institute through the EU Twinning project “Supporting Improvement of Health Impact Assessment Practice for Georgia,” a pilot study was conducted on the health effects of air pollution on Rustavi’s population aged 30+ using WHO’s quantitative research tool – AirQ+. Preparation of the study results report is ongoing.

We will wait for publication of the study report, which will serve as confirmation of this activity’s completion. We are interested in the study’s significant findings.

The agency responsible for implementing this activity is the L. Sakvarelidze National Center for Disease Control and Public Health.

Partner agencies – National Environmental Agency and National Statistics Office of Georgia.

“Gavigudet” is a member of the action plan working group, so we will of course actively continue monitoring plan implementation and, if needed, send our comments to the Ministry regarding the report.

You can view the action plan document at this link.

The material was prepared with financial support from USAID National Governance Program.