VZCZCXRO8102
PP RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHBI RUEHCI RUEHDBU RUEHDF RUEHIK RUEHLH RUEHLN
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DE RUEHAH #0677/01 1530815
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 020815Z JUN 09
FM AMEMBASSY ASHGABAT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2887
INFO RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC PRIORITY
RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE
RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
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RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA 5242
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 2978
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 2843
RUEHIT/AMCONSUL ISTANBUL 3486
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 1013
RHMFIUU/CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL
RUEHVEN/USMISSION USOSCE 3582
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ASHGABAT 000677 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR SCA/CEN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV SENV EIND ENRG TRGY TX RU AORC
SUBJECT:  TURKMEN GOVERNMENT RELUCTANT TO OPENLY DISCUSS 
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES 
 
¶1.  (U) Sensitive but unclassified.  Not for public 
Internet. 
 
¶2.  (U) SUMMARY:  While the Government of Turkmenistan 
has recently authorized environmental cleanup projects, 
it appears to be motivated more by preparations for the 
Avaza Tourism Zone than by a desire to improve the living 
conditions of the Turkmen people.  Despite having signed 
the European Union's Aarhus Convention, the government is 
reluctant to speak openly about environmental problems. 
In addition, citizens lack the organization and resources 
to focus on environmental issues.  The opening of an EU- 
Tacis-sponsored Information and Resource Center is the 
first step in Turkmenistan's implementation of the 
Convention, but the Center has not received any requests 
from private individuals since its establishment.  END 
SUMMARY. 
 
RUSSIAN COMPANY TO DISPOSE OF RADIOACTIVE WASTE 
 
¶3.  (SBU) President Berdimuhamedov issued a decree on 
February 7 for a project authorizing state concern 
Turkmenhimiya to sign a USD 12.4 million contract with 
the Russian company Ecomet to dispose of radioactive 
waste from two chemical plants in western Turkmenistan, a 
carbon black production plant in Hazar and an iodine 
production plant in Balkanabat.  According to the decree, 
the Ministry of Healthcare and Medical Industry and the 
Ministry of Defense will coordinate the removal and 
transport of the waste.  The presidential decree did not 
specify where the radioactive waste will be disposed of. 
Government opposition website "Turkmenskaya Iskra" 
(www.tm-iskra.org) reported that the radioactive waste 
will be disposed of in the Karakum Desert, and that a 
cement production plant will be built at the site to 
provide cement for the construction of a storage 
facility. 
 
NEW HOUSEHOLD WASTE DISPOSAL PLANT COMMISSIONED 
 
¶4.  (U) The city of Ashgabat commissioned a household 
waste disposal plant in the outskirts of Ashgabat in 
February.  According to the official press report, the 
process that prepares waste for further recycling 
includes separation, pressing and briquetting.  One area 
of the plant will sterilize and disintegrate medical 
waste before disposal.  It is planned that the plant will 
recycle specially-treated food waste by using it in 
organic fertilizers in the future. 
 
TOXIC WASTE AND ACCESS TO ENVIROMENTAL INFORMATION 
 
¶5.  (SBU) According to the Ministry of Nature 
Protection's report of 1990 (available on the website of 
GRID-Arendal, a collaborating center of the United 
Nations Environmental Programme), 1,350 tons of toxic 
waste -- including discarded agricultural chemicals -- 
were dumped in the territories of Mary, Dashoguz and 
Lebap provinces.  Since the time that this Soviet-era 
report was written, Turkmenistan ratified the Aarhus 
Convention on April 30, 1999, which requires signatories 
to provide the public with access to environmental 
information and to allow public input to governmental 
decision-making processes on matters concerning the 
environment.  However, the Turkmen Government has not 
made public any information about its intentions to 
address the toxic waste problem mentioned in the 
1990 report. 
 
INFORMATION AND RESOURCE CENTER ON AARHUS CONVENTION 
 
ASHGABAT 00000677  002 OF 003 
 
 
 
¶6.  (SBU) EU-Tacis provided a grant to the local 
ecology NGO "Tebigy Kuwwat" to establish an 
Information and Resource Center under the regional 
project "Strengthening Public Participation and Civil 
Society Support to Implementation of the Aarhus 
Convention" in December 2008.  During a meeting at the 
Center, National Coordinator for the Aarhus Convention 
Viktoriya Akopova told locally engaged Politcal-Economic Assistant 
that the center is working on national educational 
projects to train provincial and central government 
officials about their rights and responsibilities under 
the Convention.  The projects involve training 
seminars, public events and printed materials.  The 
Center can also provide environmental information to a 
registered public organization upon request.  Akopova 
said the Aarhus Convention, as well as national 
legislation, including the Constitution of Turkmenistan, 
the National Environmental Action Plan and the Law of 
Turkmenistan on Environmental Impact Assessment, 
guarantees anyone, including private citizens, access to 
information about the state of Turkmenistan's 
environment.  She added that in practice, government 
officials prefer to work with registered environmental 
NGOs.  Akopova said that the Center has not received any 
requests from private individuals since its 
establishment. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) The Center views collaboration with public 
organizations working on environmental issues as a means 
to reach the public at large, and to educate on rights 
under the Convention.  (NOTE:  The Center's list of 
public organizations includes only those that are 
registered with the government, such as the Turkmen 
Society of Nature Protection, Ashgabat Gardeners' 
Society, Falconers' Club, Agama Alpinist Club, Turkmen 
Society of Hunters and Fishermen, and Voluntary Firemen's 
Society.  The list does not include unregistered 
environmental NGOs.  END NOTE.)  In addition, the Center 
works closely with government organizations to educate 
officials about their responsibilities under the 
Convention.  Since its opening in December 1998, the 
Center has arranged training seminars on the 
implementation of the Convention for Turkmenistan's law 
enforcement bodies, prosecutors and independent lawyers. 
 
¶8.  (SBU) COMMENT:  The carbon black produced at the 
Hazar Chemical Plant is an export item that generates 
hard-currency revenues for Turkmenistan, and therefore, 
it is unlikely that the government will close the plant, 
regardless of its negative impact on the environment. 
The President's decision to move radioactive waste from 
the Caspian Sea area into the desert can be explained by 
his personal attention to the development of the Avaza 
Tourism Zone and the priority that it is an 
environmentally safe site. 
 
¶9.  (SBU) COMMENT CONTINUED:  The National Coordinator 
for the Aarhus Convention said that in order to 
effectively implement provisions of the Convention, 
Turkmenistan needs a more developed civil society.  The 
registration of independent environmental NGOs would be a 
step in the right direction.  Of course, such 
environmental watchdogs would be thorn in the 
government's side, highlighting problems that the 
government would rather ignore or deal with quietly. 
Without watchdog groups, there will be major barriers to 
further implementation of the Convention, because the 
government has no motivation to continue the process and, 
left to its own devices, would prefer to sweep these 
 
ASHGABAT 00000677  003 OF 003 
 
 
problems under the rug.  END COMMENT. 
 
MILES