Tashkent Probes Wastewater Discharge Into Salar Canal

Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.uz) — An investigation has begun in Tashkent into the damage of a main sewer collector at a construction site of the Better Best company in the Yakkasaray district, which resulted in the discharge of wastewater into the Salar Canal. City authorities and environmental services are conducting an inspection, while emergency services continue recovery operations.

According to the Tashkent city administration, the accident occurred on 3 July 2026 at around 15:15 at a construction site on Salar Street, near the Solaris residential complex. During excavation works, a reinforced concrete sewer collector with a diameter of 1800 mm was damaged, leading to a partial subsidence and collapse of the soil. There were no casualties.

According to preliminary assessments, the cause of the incident was the construction organization's failure to comply with technical regulations and safety requirements when performing work near engineering communications. The city administration noted that the responsible persons had been repeatedly reminded of the need to ensure the protection of existing networks, but the necessary measures were not taken in a timely manner.

The Toshkent Shahar Suv Taminoti enterprise, together with specialized services, started emergency recovery operations. The company reported that the situation is under control.

Following social media reports about wastewater entering the Salar Canal, the Tashkent City Department of Ecology and Climate Change formed an operational working group. It included specialists from the analytical environmental monitoring laboratory and state environmental control inspectors.

Based on the inspection results, it was established that the damage to the sewer pipe led to a direct discharge of wastewater into the Salar Canal. Specialists collected water samples for laboratory analysis. The Department of Ecology reported that measures in accordance with the legislation will be taken after the research results are obtained.

Environmental control inspectors later stopped the discharge of wastewater from the territory of the construction site and redirected it to the central sewerage network. The department stated that this prevented further pollution of the water body.

The Tashkent city administration reported that materials on the incident will be transferred to authorized bodies for a legal assessment. If violations are confirmed, the guilty individuals and organizations will be held accountable in accordance with the established procedure.

During the public discussion of the incident, architect Mariya Sultanova noted that international engineering practice provides for the organization of a temporary bypass scheme for pumping wastewater and transporting it to treatment facilities, rather than discharging it into open water bodies. In her opinion, construction projects must provide for the protection of existing engineering networks or their relocation, and compliance with these requirements must be monitored by specialized inspections.

Earlier, urbanist Iskandar Soliev also drew attention to possible violations during the implementation of the Better Best project. He claimed that the actual number of floors of the building under construction exceeds the parameters provided for by the permit documentation, and the distances between the buildings may not comply with current urban planning standards. He urged the relevant authorities to check compliance with the requirements before construction is completed.

According to open data, Better Best was registered in July 2021 in Tashkent and specializes in the construction of engineering structures.

In the rating of contracting organizations of the Ministry of Construction and Housing and Communal Economy as of 6 July 2026, the company has a DDD category and a score of 16.57 points out of 100.

The Shaffof qurilish system contains no information on the company's commissioned facilities after 2022 based on acceptance acts of completed construction objects.