Government adopts air quality management plan for industrial city of Rustavi as dust emissions exceed norms

About 14,000 tonnes of dust is emitted in Rustavi annually, which should be reduced to 2,000 tonnes, said Agriculture Minister Levan Davitashvili earlier today, noting that the government approved an air quality management plan for Rustavi today.

In 2019, we inspected all major industrial companies in Rustavi and carried out complex monitoring of the air condition in the city...the amount of [polluting solid particles] significantly exceeds the norms in some industrial areas. Our ultimate goal is to improve the ecological situation in Rustavi over ​​the next two years,” said Davitashvili.

The air quality improvement action plan includes the following issues:

• a significant increase in fines for excessive emissions from industrial companies
• active monitoring of emissions in large industrial enterprises
• granting the Department of Environmental Supervision the right to stop the activities of a company if it has significant excess of emissions
• development of a modern European legal framework to regulate industrial sector emissions

These requirements will apply to 25 existing large companies in Rustavi, while more than 100 industrial companies will be obliged to abide by the requirements across the country.

Davitashvili said that the state will invest 63 million GEL to build new, green infrastructure in the city of Rustavi in 2021-2022.