BISHKEK -- When Kyrgyzstan's authorities seized a massive sand quarry on the outskirts of the capital city, locals who had complained for years about excessive dust from the site breathed easier.
But now the state is skirting environmental laws to build new production facilities at the site despite having seized it on the pretext of environmental protection -- and the mine is now providing materials to at least one major state residential development backed by President Sadyr Japarov, an RFE/RL investigation has found.
"When the government took over the quarry, we felt a sense of relief. However, they've increased mining activities, resulting in heavier dust pollution than before," Kenjegul Beishekeev, a resident who lives near the quarry, told RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service. "We don't know how to stop it."
Environmental activists, residents, and an opposition lawmaker warn that two new factories that the mayor's office announced would be built at the 67-hectare quarry site in Bishkek's southeastern 12th microdistrict will exacerbate the city's notorious air pollution.
The privately owned company whose quarry operations were taken over by the state accuses Japarov's government of engineering the takeover to supply cheap sand and gravel materials to state construction projects.
Officials deny this claim, though RFE/RL observed dump trucks loading gravel at the quarry and driving to one of these projects: a $200 million residential development being built under Japarov's ambitious housing initiative. The project's general contractor is owned by the relative of a former Bishkek mayor who served several years in prison on a corruption conviction that was later overturned.
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Sandstorm: Kyrgyz Quarry Ignites Controversy Over Presidential Project
Japarov, who has tightened his control over the political landscape in the Central Asian nation of 7 million since coming to power in October 2020, has faced criticism from anti-corruption watchdogs over decreasing government transparency and a weakening rule of law.
Journalistic investigations have found that associates of the president and his son are benefiting financially from state contracts and infrastructure projects.
After opposition lawmaker Dastan Bekeshev passed residents' complaints about the plans for the new factories to the Natural Resources Ministry, it responded that initial work on one of the plants had begun without proper environmental permitting.
"Air pollution previously came from the city center and the lower part of Bishkek. With the construction of these plants, dangerous chemicals will be swept into all of Bishkek," Bekeshev told RFE/RL.
In the meantime, operations continue at the quarry and the concrete-asphalt factory after the plant was briefly shut down by the government.
"The authorities promised us that the factory would be removed, and we hoped for clean air from the mountains," Gulai Apsultanova, who has lived near the quarry for more than two decades, told RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service. "Now the government is building its factories. Every morning we have dozens of trucks here with sand and gravel, stirring tons of dust."
'The Consequences Are Obvious'
Mining at the sand quarry dates back to 1968, when the facility, officially called the Alamedinskoye sand mine, opened under Soviet rule.
In 1985, the city council of Bishkek -- then known by its Soviet name, Frunze -- shuttered an asphalt-concrete factory at the site, calling it a "significant source of air pollution in the city" and in violation of a ban on such facilities in residential and recreational areas, according to a document from Soviet-era archives obtained by RFE/RL.
That document is the lone record that RFE/RL reporters could find referring to the environmental impact of the massive mining pit that is in close proximity to residential buildings.
A document from government archives showing that Soviet-era authorities in Kyrgyzstan ordered the asphalt-cement factory at the sand quarry to be closed in 1985, citing "severe" air pollution.
"There aren't any independent environmental studies on the quarry, but the consequences are obvious: Industrial air pollution and the groundwater deficit will skyrocket," a Kyrgyz environmental activist told RFE/RL in response to questions about the Bishkek City Hall's plans to build two concrete-asphalt plants at the quarry.
The activist spoke on condition of anonymity, citing security concerns.
Bishkek suffers from some of the worst air pollution in the world, and a UNICEF report in November 2022 called air pollution "the biggest environmental risk factor for premature death and deterioration of health in Kyrgyzstan."
Operation of the sand quarry resumed in 1999, eight years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, under Kum-Shagyl, a leading producer of construction materials in the Kyrgyz capital that provided tens of thousands of tons of sand, gravel, concrete, and other materials annually to Bishkek's rapidly growing construction sector.
Many residents in the area were less than enthused about the proximity of the quarry to their homes in an area relatively untouched by Bishkek's brutal smog. In a June 2022 letter to Japarov, residents from the nearby settlement of Kok-Jar complained that the amount of dust emanating from the site was "unbearable" and called for the quarry's closure.
Kum-Shagyl's land-use license for the site was valid until 2025. But in February, the Bishkek mayor's office and the head of the presidential administration -- with backing from police and Kyrgyzstan's State Committee for National Security (UKMK) -- shut down the company's factory and sand quarry.
Four Plots, One Massive Quarry
The area of the quarry covers 67.7 hectares divided into four plots. Prior to the authorities’ seizure of the site, Kum-Shagyl held licenses for three of these plots and an ownership certificate for the fourth, the 16-hectare plot where its factory operated.
Since 2021, the government has made several moves to take over the factory, including not renewing the land-use agreements. Kum-Shagyl has since been involved in several legal disputes with the city. Following the forced closure of the factory in February, the Kyrgyz government placed it under external management and terminated the land-use agreements.
The company's workers staged several days of demonstrations and appealed to Japarov for support but received no response.
But less than a month later, the sand quarry and factory were up and running again, only this time under the control of the Bishkek Mayor's Office and Japarov's administration, which had taken over the site thanks to a decree by the government.
That decree, which has been extended until August 29, said the move was necessary in order to eliminate environmental violations "that threaten people's lives or health."
An environmental assessment commissioned by the UKMK and reviewed by RFE/RL, meanwhile, states that despite having been issued a license for its operations on a 16-hectare plot within the quarry, Kum-Shagyl's operations there were illegal because the area is a source of groundwater and designated as "green space" for public use.
An environmental assessment commissioned by Kyrgyz security services states that Kum-Shagyl's factory at the Bishkek sand quarry is located on a 16-hectare plot designated as a "green space" reserved for public use. After seizing the site, Kyrgyz officials announced the construction of two new factories.
But if local residents had hopes that the factory would be razed in favor of a new park, those would soon be dashed by Bishkek's mayor.
On March 30, less than two months after authorities seized the site, Bishkek Mayor Aibek Junushaliev announced the construction of two new asphalt-concrete plants with the stated aim of drastically boosting production of asphalt for road construction and repair.
One of these new factories is owned by Bishkek Asphalt Service, a wholly owned subsidiary of the city, and is being relocated to the quarry from a different site.
The Natural Resources Ministry told Bekeshev, the opposition lawmaker, that this plant is being put up "without any design estimates or permits" required under environmental laws.
Bishkek Deputy Mayor Jamalbek Yrsaliev, who oversees Bishkek Asphalt Service at city hall, told RFE/RL that the company "is in the final process of relocating its factory to the sand quarry in the 12th microdistrict."
"The construction of the new plants is expected to be completed within a month," Yrsaliev said.
A mayor's office spokeswoman said, however, that the government could halt construction, though she provided no further details.
Dump trucks at the Dastan City construction site in early June. RFE/RL observed at least two trucks leaving the site and entering the territory of the sand quarry previously operated by Kum-Shagyl that authorities seized in February.
Nurbek Tenirberdiev, an environmental scientist at Kyrgyz National University, told RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service that quarries "should be located far from residential areas" and that the "first rule of running a quarry is to adhere to environmental standards."
"Factors such as wind direction and the quarry's location in a windy area are crucial because the operation of any quarry, regardless of whether it produces metal or other construction materials, will cause air pollution," Tenirberdiev said. "Industrial dust carried by the wind to residential areas can lead to serious consequences."
Bishkek City Hall said in April that the mayor, Djunushaliev, visited the quarry to inspect preparations for the installation of a plant at the site owned by Bishkek Asphalt Service.
The mayor's office told RFE/RL on June 6 that construction of the planned factories had not begun.
One government source told RFE/RL that while the quarry is, on paper, managed by the mayor's office, in reality it is controlled by Japarov's administration.
E-mailed questions to Japarov's administration about the quarry's operations went unanswered as of publication.
Whoever controls the site, every day dump trucks are carrying gravel and sand away from the quarry -- including to a large development project that is part of Japarov's social-housing program.
Bishkek Mayor Aybek Djunushaliev (second from right) visiting the site of the sand quarry in April to inspect preparations for construction of one of two planned asphalt-concrete plants at the site.
'Hostile Takeover'
On a recent weekday in Bishkek, RFE/RL observed at least two dump trucks leaving the construction site of the $200 million residential development called Dastan City and driving 1.5 kilometers to enter the sand quarry through one of its western gates.
Dastan City, construction of which began in April, is set to feature 9,000 apartments, 500 of which are to be allocated for state workers under reduced mortgage rates. The project is part of Japarov's program to boost social housing for bureaucrats that he launched by decree in January.
The state contract to build the Dastan City complex was awarded to the Bishkek company Expostroy Kurulush by the government's State Mortgage Company, though details about the selection process for the government tender have not been made public.
Almanbet Shykmamatov, head of the State Mortgage Company, told RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service that he did not have any information about the tender because it was awarded prior to his tenure at the company.
The owner of Expostroy Kurulush is the nephew of former Bishkek Mayor Nariman Tuleev, who was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2013 after being convicted of corruption. His conviction was later overturned by the Kyrgyz Supreme Court.
Kum-Shagyl is now challenging in the courts what it calls the state's "hostile takeover" of its mining and production operations at the quarry. And the company alleges that Japarov's government is now using the seized assets to source cheap construction materials for key state construction projects like Dastan City.
"Currently, all the materials from our factory -- concrete, sand, and gravel -- are being sent to state construction sites," Kum-Shagyl Director Aidin Ibraev told RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service.
The allegation last week made it to the floor of the Kyrgyz parliament, where lawmaker Gulia Kojokulova of the opposition party Butun Kyrgyzstan called on Kyrgyz prosecutors and security services to "pay closer attention to this case."
"While I support social housing, it's alleged that these construction companies want to take raw materials like sand and gravel for free," Kojokulova said.
Kyrgyz opposition lawmaker Gulia Kojokulova addressing parliament during a June 7 session in which she raised the issue of the alleged seizure of Kum-Shagyl's factory in order to feed cheap materials to state construction projects.
Expostroy Kurulus Director Kubanychbek Tuleev denied sourcing materials from the sand quarry for the Dastan City project but declined to specify which companies were supplying the development.
"Currently we don't need sand and gravel for our construction. We are taking concrete from our long-term partners," he told RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service.
Bishkek Deputy Mayor Yrsaliev -- who oversees the Bishkek Asphalt Service that is now operating Kum-Shagyl's former factory at the sand quarry -- told RFE/RL that the company had moved "all of its equipment" to the sand quarry in question but was "sourcing sand and gravel from other quarries."
The Natural Resources Ministry told RFE/RL that Bishkek Asphalt Service has not been issued "any licenses giving them the right to use subsoil."
Yrsaliev said the company is not supplying the Dastan City development.
From the nearby hills overlooking the sand quarry, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service observed numerous orange trucks being filled with gravel at the sand quarry and heading to the Dastan City construction site.
RFE/RL reporters observed dump trucks traveling along the road between the massive sand quarry on Bishkek's southeastern outskirts and Dastan City, a $200 million residential development that is party of President Sadyr Japarov's housing program.
Asked who is currently mining at the quarry, which is controlled on paper by city hall, the deputy mayor said: "We don't have that information. It could be that some private companies are mining."
For residents living near the quarry, the issue of who controls the open-pit mine and where its sand and gravel are being delivered appears to be of secondary importance.
"I wanted these large windows because I wanted to plant flowers here," homeowner Apsultanova, who has battled for years to have the quarry closed, told RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service. "But the factory is right in front of my window. I can't open it. If I do, dust will cover us.
"I've lost hope that this issue will be solved," Apsultanova added. "The quarry is becoming even bigger than before."