Even after he retired in 2019, chemical engineer Suidumbek Kalmurzayev remained preoccupied by the destiny of his former office in Tash-Kumyr, a Kyrgyz metropolis that sits on the gateway to Central Asia’s Fergana Valley and is understood domestically as “the graveyard of factories.”
“I used to say to him: ‘What’s it to you? Leave that manufacturing facility properly alone’,” Kalmurzayev’s widow Uububyu Kalmurzayeva advised Eurasianet throughout an interview at her residence.
“He would say that Tash-Kumyr was sitting on an ecological time bomb. He tried till the tip to seek out out the place all the cash went.”
Kalmurzayev died final yr after a quick sickness, forsaking a trove of paperwork and press cuttings linked to the Soviet-legacy Kristall polysilicon manufacturing facility the place he was the final worker.
But the time bomb he referred to with regularity continues to be ticking.
For greater than twenty years, 80 tons of harmful chemical compounds have sat in disused Kristall, which as soon as remodeled risky compounds into supplies for semiconductors and was slated to develop into one of many greatest crops on this planet of its sort. In the age of microchips and photo voltaic panels, its output would have been in excessive demand.
Instead, uncared for and ignored by the federal government, residents concern these corrosive chemical compounds are actually slowly leaking out into the native surroundings, spelling ecological disaster for each town and the broader area, together with the populous Fergana Valley beneath.
Kalmurzayev started working at Kristall as a foreman in 1985 and later grew to become a manufacturing supervisor.
Over the years he noticed the location continuously divided into completely different sections with completely different firms in cost as Kyrgyzstan’s political tides shifted, with two presidents felled inside 5 years of one another in the course of the second decade of independence.
The web site is now owned by Computer Power Center LLC, an organization registered in Kyrgyzstan 2019.
Its director, Maksat Oskonbayev, confirmed that it now hosts a crypto mining farm, though he claimed that the rigs aren’t at the moment working.
During a gathering in Tash-Kumyr, Oskonbayev claimed that he’s not allowed to entry the territory and that the big vats of chemical compounds are usually not the corporate’s duty since they’re owned by a separate agency known as Tash-Kömür Silicon Production CJSC (TSP), from whom Computer Power Center LLC acquired the land and constructing three years in the past.
“Everybody is aware of that there’s poison in these tankers, residue within the pipes. We raised these questions [with the state property fund] proper after we purchased the plant. Everyone is aware of that we gained’t get any traders right here till the difficulty is resolved,” mentioned Oskonbayev.
Computer Power Center LLC is Chinese-owned, Oskonbayev mentioned, with out offering particulars.
The shifting of duty for the chemical compounds has been a sample on the plant, which has largely stood idle after being prepped for privatization within the wake of the Soviet Union’s collapse within the early Nineties.
According to a 2012 report by news website 24.kg property on the territory have been from 2007 onwards managed by Belize-registered firms linked to then-President Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s son Maksim Bakiyev and his enterprise associate and former classmate Alexey Eliseev.
These years have been the most efficient throughout independence for the manufacturing facility, which started producing polycrystalline silicon in keeping with world requirements.
But at 750 kilograms in 2009, annual output was properly wanting the 165-200 tons that the brand new traders have been setting as their final goal.
The following yr introduced bloody revolution, nationalization and accusations of mass embezzlement and worse aimed by the brand new regime on the fugitive Bakiyevs and their associates.
Kristall was declared bankrupt, positioned beneath exterior administration and stored in standby mode with a skeleton workers.
Initially unaddressed was the destiny of the big tanks of trichlorosilane, a transparent liquid that’s each flammable and corrosive sufficient to separate muscle from bone.
In 2011, the federal government beneath Prime Minister Almazbek Atambayev allotted 6.4 million soms ($152,000 on the time) to cope with the issue. A former colleague of Kalmurzaev’s, a scientist who requested anonymity, confirmed Eurasianet authorities paperwork dated from May 23, 2011, that confirmed the order to eliminate the chemical compounds.
But the cash was by no means used for its meant goal.
“The lifespan of the tanks is barely 12 months, however they’ve been standing there for 20 years,” the scientist mentioned.
There are “enormous dangers” of the rusting tanks exploding in the course of the center of Tash-Kumyr’s summers, when temperatures usually rise over 40 levels Celsius, or in winter, when fierce winds batter the realm, the scientist added.
“If that occurs, the air, earth and water will probably be poisoned. There will probably be tragic penalties not just for Tash-Kumyr and Jalal-Abad, however for the entire area.”
Tash-Kumyr’s new mayor, Kelsinbek Bektemirov advised Eurasianet that native authorities are able to become involved within the waste disposal effort if funds are forthcoming.
During an interview in his workplace, each Bektemirov and his deputy forged doubt on the crypto mining agency’s declare that the chemical compounds within the tanks are nonetheless the duty of TSP – the Bakiyev-linked firm that was nationalized.
Computer Power Center LLC agreed to tackle all property once they concluded the deal, the officers have mentioned.
Leaks on the web site – albeit small ones with no seen results on the encircling space – have been reported up to now.
Back in 2017, Tash-Kumyr’s prosecutor obtained complaints a few leak on the plant and requested authorities inspections. In response, the Jalal-Abad area Interdistrict Court ordered the destruction of the chemical compounds beneath specialist supervision. But no work has taken place to at the present time.
Bishkek-based activist and photographer Vlad Ushakov, one of many co-founders of ecomap.kg, a map of environmental stress round Kyrgyzstan, was capable of enter the plant in 2020 and document what he mentioned have been indicators of the leak and a slapdash try to repair it.
“You can see from pictures contained in the plant the poor situation of the tanks. You can see the place anyone tried to caulk the pipes. If the authorities proceed to disregard the issue, Tash-Kumyr will face an ecological disaster,” Ushakov mentioned.
By Eurasianet.org
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