Ashgabat, 19-20 January 2021: Within the framework of a joint project of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection of Turkmenistan "Sustainable Cities in Turkmenistan: Integrated Green Urban Development in Ashgabat and Avaza", another stage of training was held on operating the new equipment for monitoring  of environment and soil condition for employees of laboratories of the Environmental Control Service and the provincial departments of environmental protection of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection of Turkmenistan.

As part of the project, the purpose of the training is to implement measures for the development and implementation of a plan for a modern system for monitoring the ecological condition of the cities of Turkmenistan.

“Procurement of this new equipment is the third step towards improving the existing environmental monitoring system. As a result of improving the technical capacity and knowledge, the laboratory staff will better perform and improve services provided in the field of environmental protection”, said Mrs. Viktoriya Akopova, project specialist on ecological monitoring during the training opening.

During the training, participants have been familiarised with the new equipment, its purpose and description of functional possibilities of its application. Brief instructions were provided for specialists of laboratories from Ashgabat and velayats directly involved in the selection and chemical analysis of environmental components, followed by practical exercises conducted at the laboratory for monitoring water and soil pollution of the Environmental Control Service on working with real samples received from observation network. The training participants also carried out a series of analyzes of soil samples, built calibration graphs and made an off-site processing of the results obtained.