[{"bbox": [100, 151, 1134, 206], "category": "Text", "text": "**Key stakeholders:** MoEDPR, Ministries of Finance, Energy, Water and Agriculture, SOEs, State Committee for Environment and Nature Protection, UzHydromet, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs)"}, {"bbox": [100, 217, 1134, 272], "category": "Text", "text": "When it comes to the existing mechanism to ensure safe handling of chemicals, Uzbekistan has both “soft” and “hard” shortcomings:"}, {"bbox": [100, 283, 1134, 364], "category": "List-item", "text": "- Absence of a single coordinating inter-agency body responsible for the sound management of chemicals, a lack of information exchange between agencies, and a lack of up-to-date information on highly hazardous chemicals, including POPs;"}, {"bbox": [100, 364, 1134, 418], "category": "List-item", "text": "- Hazardous waste management and disposal infrastructure is widely lacking as well as experienced staff able to treat waste according to best international practices and analytical chemical labs for characterising wastes;"}, {"bbox": [100, 418, 1134, 471], "category": "List-item", "text": "- Lack of a national waste management strategy needed for developing long-term, sustainable waste management;"}, {"bbox": [100, 471, 1035, 498], "category": "List-item", "text": "- Insufficient management and monitoring of obsolete or banned pesticides and pesticide containers."}, {"bbox": [100, 498, 1134, 576], "category": "List-item", "text": "- High soil contamination at former agricultural airfields and other sites. Sites, where levels of soil contamination with organochlorine pesticides exceeded permissible levels by a hundred times or more were found in almost all oblasts;"}, {"bbox": [100, 578, 1134, 709], "category": "List-item", "text": "- Industrial facilities using chlorine (paper production, technical rubber, soda, etc.), but also sub-standard incineration processes may be sources of unintentional dioxin emissions. There is no laboratory for dioxins and furans determination in the country. Also, Uzbekistan has no industrial facilities for the environmentally sound disposal of wastes and stocks containing chemicals listed in Annexes A and B of the Stockholm Convention;"}, {"bbox": [100, 710, 801, 737], "category": "List-item", "text": "- Absence of treatment technologies for management of hazardous wastes;"}, {"bbox": [100, 738, 1134, 922], "category": "List-item", "text": "- Uncontrolled and overuse of pesticides. This creates risks not only for human health, but also for the environment and biodiversity. Uzbekistan has not established a clear system of control over the use of plant protection products by farmers and the public on the basis of established norms. In addition, neither registrants of pesticides nor their producers have an influence on their storage and use by consumers, and they are not responsible either for the consequences of improper storage and use or sufficiently informed about potential risks of Highly Hazardous Pesticides. As a result, they mainly import \"available\" pesticides from the international market;"}, {"bbox": [100, 923, 1134, 978], "category": "List-item", "text": "- Lack of improved agricultural practices for promoting a better management of pesticides and the reduced use of toxic pesticides (e.g. Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strengthening and promoting bio pesticides);"}, {"bbox": [100, 978, 1134, 1057], "category": "List-item", "text": "- Lack of human and technical capacity building across sectors. This jeopardises the implementation of activities of the National Action Plan to meet the requirements of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants but also to manage (hazardous) chemicals safely."}, {"bbox": [114, 1068, 1134, 1173], "category": "Text", "text": "**Key stakeholders:** State Committee for Environment and Nature Protection, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), the Ministry of Innovative Development and the Plant Protection Agency and others. Other stakeholders include agricultural extension services, farmers associations, crop protection industry and CSOs."}, {"bbox": [1038, 1680, 1144, 1706], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 7 of 24"}]