Confronting Khujand’s Landfill Challenges Khujand, Tajikistan

80

hECTAREs OF lANd REClAIMEd

Inhabitants 181,600

GdP per capita $3,354

Geographic area 40 km²

ThE ChAllENGE

Dating back to the Soviet Union era, the antiquated and under-funded waste management infrastructure has been unable to cope with current waste flows.

CO-BENEFITs

Economic

The construction of the new facility and associated processes will create new jobs for inhabitants in Khujand.

Environmental

By improving waste processing and generating energy, the project will reduce emissions and improve the environmental conditions of the downstream Syr Darya River area.

Confronting Khujand’s landfill Challenges

A waste treatment plant will be constructed in the industrial area of Khujand to relieve the city’s problematic dependence on landfilling, creating energy for the town in the process.

The EU-funded construction of a waste treatment plant in Tajikistan’s secondlargest city will soon be underway. Through thermal processing, the facility will dispose of urban waste and contents from surrounding landfill sites, which have been persistent sources of environmental pollution and health hazards, and have undermined efficient land management.

In addition to establishing a plant that can process up to 45,000 cubic meters of sewage and 100 tons of solid waste, the project will also generate energy for the town and enable the reclamation of 80 hectares of land.

The project responds to an urgent need for expanding and modernizing waste treatment infrastructure in Khujand. The gap between waste treatment needs and capacities has encouraged both legal and illegal landfilling over recent decades, producing some 70 official landfills across the country, which cover 296 hectares and store 12 million tons of waste. The new plant will hopefully displace landfilling practices and encourage project iterations in other Tajik cities.

establishing a waste treatment plant in Khujand. The new plant will crucially improve local waste and land management for Tajikistan’s second-largest city (photo by qtgkz via Adobe Stock Adobe Stock).