On November 9-10, 2017, with the financial support of the OSCE Office in Bishkek, surveys and assessments of the condition of abandoned facilities of the former mercury production plant in Kadamjai district of the Batken region attended by a senior inspector for industrial safety and Mountain Surveillance of the SIETS Regional Office for Aidarken, Kyzyl-Kiya and Kadamzhai District, K. Kamalov, Inspector for Environmental Safety of the same sub-sector, J. Dykanov, Inspector of the Chauvaysky ayil okmotu K. Jorobaev, Chief Engineer of the Chauwai-Ken, A. Artykbayev and employees of the Aarhus Center in Osh K. Isabayev, T. Zhumabekov.

During the survey and evaluation, the following are determined:

1. In all the facilities, reclamation work has not been carried out and is not preserved;
2. On the site under investigation, since 2015, Chauwai Ken Ltd., which extracts antimony, operates.
3. During the survey and evaluation, 14 abandoned objects of the former metallurgical plant for the production of mercury were identified. The total volume of waste (culverts and sludge) is about 4 million tons;
4. Industrial waste from the Chauwai-Ken plant is stored in the old adit of Gazan-Too;
5. July, August, 2017 on the territory of the Chauvaysky ayil okmotu by the LLC “Kireks of Minerals” geological exploration work was carried out;
6. Upon completion of the survey and evaluation, the participants together with the head of the ayil okmotu A. Bakirov discussed the state of the facilities and further steps to address these issues.

Within the framework of the survey and evaluation, the meeting of the participants with the head of the Kadamjai District State Administration-Akim Zh. M. Isakov took place. At the meeting the participants informed the akim about preliminary results of the conducted survey and discussed ways of joint solution of this problem.

Isakov Zh.M made the following suggestions for resolving the issue:

– conducting water quality monitoring, performing drinking water analyzes with the involvement of the laboratory of the district;

– organization of work and attraction of resources from local funds to protect dangerous objects;

– preparation of appeals to relevant authorities to resolve issues;

-organization of training on safety for local residents, employees of mining and geological exploration companies;

-organization of the subbotnik with the participation of residents of ayil okmotu, public organizations, to clean up areas and planting seedlings on landslide areas;

– organization of public monitoring to determine the impact of facilities and their waste on the environment;

– conducting research to determine the incidence of the population;

– organization of a meeting to discuss problems with abandoned mercury mining facilities with the participation of relevant monitoring bodies.

A representative of the Chauvai aiyl okmotu asked for help from the local fund to carry out works on concreting the entrance to the mine No. 1 and to reduce risks in the three districts of the aiyl where the failures occurred (auto stations).

At the end of the meeting, after discussing all proposals, the participants decided to develop a set of measures to address this issue.