Māris kļaviņŠ, azamat azizov, JĀnis zaļoksnis environment, pollution, development: the case of uzbekistan

‘The polluter pays’ principle requires that the costs of assess-
ment, prevention and mitigation of pollution as well as the costs of 
elimination of its effects are borne by the person whose activity has 
caused the pollution in question.
There are over 3000 sites (including land areas and waters) 
identified  in  Latvia  that  are  actually  or  potentially  contaminated 
with hazardous substances. On the European Union scale, there are 
over 300 000 such sites. But this should not happen at all.
The earlier environ mental regulatory framework has not pre-
vented the possibility of origination for such sites, because the en-
vi ron mental polluters could have easy ways to avoid responsibility. 
Now, there are new legislative acts passed on the basis of ‘the 
polluter pays’ principle in order to make the polluters accountable 
for restoring the contaminated sites to their previous environ mental 
condition.
Persons – individuals or companies – whose actions have caused 
harm to the environ ment, i.e., such detectable changes in the 
environ ment that are likely to have significant negative impacts on 
both human health and also the environ ment (e.g., waters, specially 
protected areas, species, habitats) are required to restore the 
previous state of the environ ment, covering the pollution removal 
and environ ment restoration costs.
‘The  polluter  pays’  principle  will  fully  come  into  effect  when 
each contaminated site is de contami nated and the decontamination 
costs are covered by the persons who have caused the respective 
pollution.
To put ‘the polluter pays’ principle into effect, it is important to 
determine who is the polluter and for what the polluter must pay.
Companies engaged in such economic activities that have a 
high environ mental risk – for example, carrying dangerous cargos, 
transporting chemical (oil) products via pipelines, operating 
fuel  filling  stations  or  producing  cement,  glass  fibre  or  chemical 
products – have to prevent the damage caused to the environ ment 
due to their activities and to restore the environ ment to its previous 
state even if these companies have not violated environ mental 
regulations. In legal context, this is called strict liability.
Latvia and other former Eastern Bloc countries have established 
the register of historically contaminated (and potentially con ta mi-
na ted) sites. The new legal acts on environ mental liability are not 
applicable to the restoration of these sites, as their requirements 
are  not  effective  with  regard  to  past  events.  Therefore,  specific 
requirements have been set for the restoration of such sites. First 

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11. ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT: LEGISLATION, POLICIES, INSTITUTIONS
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of all, the responsibility lies with the person whose activity has 
caused the pollution. If that person cannot be held liable due 
to objective reasons, then the current landowner will have this 
responsibility. The con taminated site has to be restored to such an 
extent as to prevent the contamination from spreading or entering 
the groundwater, so that it would no longer be hazardous for human 
health or the environ ment.
‘The polluter pays’ principle is not applicable in cases when 
it is impossible to determine who has caused the environ mental 
pollution, or the company at fault for the pollution is known but no 
longer exists, while the contaminated site has not been transferred 
to another owner. In the Baltic states, for example, these sites are 
mainly the territories formerly occupied by the Soviet army as well 
as the sites contaminated by the former Soviet plants.
If the actual polluter does not exist anymore, and the 
contaminated site does not have another owner, the clean-up of the 
contaminated site has to be covered from the state budget. Besides, 
legislation usually establishes less stringent requirements for the 
state – the polluted site restoration works are to be carried out only 
if the state has sufficient funds for this purpose. This is one of the 
reasons why past pollution continues to be a major environ mental 
problem in the Baltic states.
Finally, in the cases provided by the law, ‘the polluter pays’ 
principle is also extended to the manufacturers of specific products.