Ecology  
Air quality is generally good in Uzbekistan. Automobiles and some local industry cause most pollution problems in big cities.

Water may be the biggest environmental problem in Uzbekistan. Tashkent has a good water supply, which is chlorinated as well as other main cities. The rural areas experience shortage of purified drinking water. In some regions sewage outflow and drinking water intake are seldom adequately separated. Consequently, the rate of gastrointestinal diseases is relatively high.

In Karakalpakstan (the Aral Sea area), there is a major problem of mineralisation, salinity, nitrates, and pesticide residues. Nitrates and pesticides in water are the results of intensive cotton farming along the Amu-Darya and the Syr-Darya river valleys.

The Aral Sea
The Aral Sea is one of the world's great ecological catastrophes, which has been deprived of its river sources because of excessive irrigation in the times of aggressive cotton production policy. Consequently, it accounts for the Aral Sea shrinkage to one-third of its original size. An unusual environmental hazard is a "salt storm", caused when the wind blows across the vast salt flats surrounding the Aral Sea. A very bad health situation is observed in the towns adjacent to the Aral Sea (throat cancer, infant mortality, decreased life expectancy, high rate of anaemia among women, high rates of premature delivery, tripling of the number of children suffering from nervous and psychological disorders).