Complaints about dirt and stench in Bokhtar

More and more residents are complaining about dirt and odor on the streets of the city of Bokhtar, the administrative center of the Khatlon region.

On August 21, 2024, a user published a video on the Instagram channel “Bokhtar Kurgonteppa,” showing the dirty streets of Bokhtar. In the comments, dozens of residents of the city write that the municipal services are not timely cleaning the dirt and garbage on the streets and avenues of the administrative center of the region.

The video shows that one of the drainage ditches is clogged with garbage because it was not cleaned in time, causing water to overflow and flood the roadway, damaging part of the road, which complicates vehicle passage. The user writes that the reason for this problem is that the city administration does not pay attention to these issues and called on the mayor to personally leave his office and address these problems.

Residents also note that this is not the only problem in Bokhtar. According to them, the responsible services do not clean up the garbage at the dumps, and the accumulated waste emits a foul smell, causing residents to suffer from the odor even from a distance of several dozen meters. Residents write that these dumps with accumulated garbage contribute to the spread of various infectious diseases in the city.

Earlier, at a press conference summarizing the activities for the first half of the year, the chairman of the Khatlon region, Davlatali Said, informed journalists that the city administration is currently unable to solve the garbage problem, as they cannot timely remove waste from the trash bins in the city center.

According to him, several years ago, communal equipment worth $1,229,000 was purchased for this region. However, currently, part of the equipment has broken down and needs repairs.

The regional head stated that 300,000 somoni from the regional budget had been allocated for the repair of the broken equipment. However, 70,000 somoni of this amount were embezzled by officials of the State Unitary Enterprise “Housing and Communal Services.” He did not specify who exactly misappropriated these funds and how many people were held accountable in this regard.

The regional administration explained their incompetence by the lack of communal equipment and embezzlement within the structures of the communal service.

However, when asked why officials cannot timely prevent embezzlement and corruption, residents respond: “The fish rots from the head.”