Archaeologist and museum specialist Oktyabr Dospanov on the lost world of Muynak, the memory of the Aral Sea and the cultural heritage of Karakalpakstan.

For much of the outside world, Muynak is represented by a single image: rusting ships stranded in a desert. For Oktyabr Dospanov, however, the town was once an island, a busy port and the setting of a childhood filled with ship bells, gulls, music and the smell of freshly caught fish. In this interview, the Karakalpak archaeologist and museum specialist recalls the human world that disappeared with the Aral Sea, explains why the region’s cultural history reaches far beyond the ecological catastrophe, and reflects on what should be preserved for future generations.

This interview was conducted in Russian and translated into English.

See more on Novastan: Souvenirs éphémères

The story of the Aral Sea is usually told through statistics: falling water levels, rising salinity, abandoned ports and millions of tonnes of salt and dust lifted from the exposed seabed. Those figures describe the scale of the disaster, but they cannot fully convey what it meant to lose a sea that organised the economy, culture and daily rhythms of an entire region. Dospanov belongs to the last generation that remembers the Aral as an ordinary presence rather than a vanished world. Born in Muynak, he later became an archaeologist and museum specialist. His professional path began in 1979, when Igor Savitsky invited him to join an expedition at Janpyk Kala, an ancient Khorezmian settlement near the Sultan Uvays mountains. He subsequently worked at the museum in Nukus that now bears Savitsky’s name, devoting decades to the archaeology, ethnography, art and environmental history of Karakalpakstan.

Novastan: You grew up in Muynak when it was still a living port. What kind of town was it?

Oktyabr Dospanov: My childhood was spent in Muynak, which at that time was a real island in the Aral Sea. For me, it is not simply my birthplace. It was an entire world, filled with sounds, smells and the feeling of continuous life. It is difficult today to imagine that Muynak was once one of the region’s largest fishing centres.

The town’s life was inseparable from the sea. There were five large fishing collectives, twelve fish reception points and two cargo ports. One was in Muynak itself, on the shore, and the other was around twenty kilometres away at Usay, on the opposite side of the island. The fishing industry set the rhythm of the whole town.

Muynak seemed never to sleep. Even late at night, people were always walking through the streets: some going to work, others returning after their shift. Work continued around the clock. I can still hear the ship bells, the grinding of the port cranes, and the hum of fishing vessels and engines. These sounds were a natural part of everyday life.

The city was also remarkably diverse. Engineers, sailors, fishermen, teachers, doctors, scientists and artists came from across the Soviet Union. Karakalpaks, Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Russians, Tatars, Koreans, Ukrainians and many others lived side by side. In the mahallas, neighbours helped one another build houses, celebrated holidays together and supported families in difficult times. That sense of community was one of Muynak’s greatest riches.

What do you remember most vividly about the sea itself?

For my generation, the Aral was not a symbol of tragedy. It was the symbol of a happy childhood, filled with the sound of waves and the cries of gulls. Hundreds of vessels stood at Muynak’s quays: cargo ships, fishing schooners, tankers, barges and tugboats. The port operated day and night. It seemed impossible that the sea could ever disappear.

The coast was rich in life. There were reed beds, lakes and wetlands, and an extraordinary number of birds: pheasants, wild ducks, flamingos, pelicans and, above all, gulls. The silver gulls that local people affectionately called ‘laughing gulls’ accompanied us from morning until evening. Fishermen watched them because they could reveal the position of shoals of fish.

I also remember the clean, fresh air. The sea did not have the harsh salty smell that people often imagine. A constant wind made even the hottest summer days easier to bear. In winter, the sea froze and the cold was severe. We swam, fished and played football on the shore. Children came to the nearby pioneer camp from many parts of the Soviet Union, and the coast had holiday homes, sanatoriums and tourist facilities.

See more on Novastan: A sécher

What remains most powerfully in my memory is not a landscape but a smell. When I was five or six, my father and his friend Ibadulla took me out in a small wooden boat. Far from the shore, we met a large fishing seiner commanded by a man named Tazhibay-aga. He showed me the bridge, the cabins and the engine room. The hold was filled with fish. I pointed to the largest one, a huge catfish, and insisted that it was a shark. Everyone laughed.

We stayed on the vessel for almost two days. I saw how the fishermen worked and lived. The engine room smelled of diesel fuel, motor oil, metal, sea moisture, fresh fish, wooden decks and salt-soaked ropes. It was sharp, but warm and alive. To me, that was the smell of the real Aral Sea. Sometimes I close my eyes and I am back there, hearing the engine and the waves against the hull.

Muynak also had a social and cultural life that is rarely mentioned. Where did young people meet?

Muynak did not live by work alone. It had two cinemas. The best known was Sputnik, just a few steps from the shore and beside the market. After an evening screening in summer, people would walk along the waterfront, listen to the waves and stay outside talking for a long time. Later, in the second half of the 1980s, the Berdakh cinema opened in another part of the city. It was a modern cultural centre for films, concerts and public events.

The cultural centre of the fish-canning plant was another important place. It had a library and hosted theatre, amateur performances, concerts and celebrations. Young people especially loved the weekend dances. Many people met their future partners there.

There were also several cafes. The most famous was Tolqyn, which means ‘wave’ in Karakalpak. It was not simply somewhere to eat or drink tea. Families celebrated birthdays and weddings there, friends met, music played, and people exchanged news and made plans.

Music was everywhere. On warm evenings, young people gathered spontaneously in courtyards, on squares or near the sea. Someone would bring a guitar, accordion or bayan, and people would sing together. There were no mobile phones or social networks. People listened to one another and spent long evenings in company. At weddings and major family celebrations, bakhshi – traditional storytellers and musicians – performed epics and legends to the accompaniment of instruments such as the dutar. Ancient oral tradition and modern youth culture existed naturally alongside each other.

When did people understand that the retreat of the sea was irreversible?

The process was gradual. The first alarming signs became visible in the late 1960s and early 1970s. At first, people hoped it was temporary and that the sea would return. A special canal was dug from the port towards the receding water so that vessels could continue to sail. But the water withdrew faster than people could adapt.

Fishermen noticed the change first. Their catches became smaller. Fewer schooners went out. Ships that had entered the port freely began to run aground, surrounded by sand and salt blown from the exposed seabed.

Read more on Novastan: Football de rue

I remember how the sound of the city changed. Muynak had always lived through the noise of its port: bells, cranes, engines, fishermen’s voices, metal cables and waves at the quays. Then came silence. It arrived almost imperceptibly, but that silence was the most frightening thing. When the ships stop sounding, when the sea can no longer be heard and the port ceases to live, you understand that more than water is disappearing. An entire world is going.

The marine painter Rafael Matevosyan, who devoted more than half a century to the Aral Sea, described an early morning when he woke to voices and crying. Residents had gathered on the shore. Overnight, the water had retreated by dozens of metres. Boats that had been moored at the pier were lying on dry sand. Some people prayed, some cried and others simply stared at the departing water. Matevosyan later captured that moment in a painting called The Sea Has Gone.

The human consequences came quickly. Enterprises closed, fishing declined and families lost their livelihoods. Many people left Muynak for other cities or republics. The city lost not only employment and population, but also confidence in its future.

“Then came silence. It arrived almost imperceptibly, but that silence was the most frightening thing.”

What disappeared with the sea beyond the fishing industry?

Fishing was not just a source of income. It was one of the oldest forms of economic life in the Aral region and had shaped people’s identity for centuries. Archaeological excavations reveal fish represented on ceramics, bronze objects, wall paintings and household items. Fish also appeared in carpets, embroidery, jewellery, woodcarving and textiles. It symbolised water, life and prosperity in an arid region.

For many families, fishing and factory work passed from parents to children. To work at the fish-canning plant was considered respectable. People were proud that their labour mattered to the whole country. When the sea disappeared, traditions that had formed over generations also weakened: techniques and practical knowledge, recipes and fish cuisine, songs, stories and the everyday vocabulary of life by the water.

The psychological loss was equally important. Many residents came to feel that they had been left at the edge of a lifeless desert, far from the world’s attention, with the best part of their lives behind them. When former residents meet today, they often cry. Those tears express joy at seeing one another, but also nostalgia for a world that cannot be restored.

That is why the memories of the last witnesses matter so much. There are still people who remember the port cranes, the crowded waterfront, the smell of fresh fish and the horizon of open water, but their number decreases every year. Their oral histories, family photographs, songs and personal objects are part of the region’s heritage. The Aral Sea is not merely an environmental problem. It is the fate of millions of people.

Tourists now come to photograph the ship cemetery. What do you wish they understood about Muynak?

I am glad that people are interested in our region, but I would like them to see more than an unusual tourist attraction. Behind every ship is a human life. Behind every photograph are thousands of families who lost the world they knew. Every metre of exposed seabed contains the memories of people who sailed from this port, caught fish, built homes, raised children and believed the sea would last forever.

Visitors should try to imagine another picture: an expanse of water reaching the horizon, fishing vessels returning to port, gulls overhead, children laughing on the shore and a town full of movement. Only then can they understand what was lost.

At the same time, Karakalpakstan should not be reduced to catastrophe. This region has been a crossroads of nomadic and settled civilisations for thousands of years. The art of the Aral region carries images of animals, birds, plants, water and steppe. Its carpets, textiles, jewellery, embroidery, carved wood and yurt interiors preserve symbols that connect people to the natural world. Muynak was one part of a much wider cultural landscape.

Your own career began with archaeology. How did Igor Savitsky influence you?

My path into science began in 1979, when I met Igor Vitalyevich Savitsky. He invited me to join an archaeological expedition at Janpyk Kala, one of the great monuments of ancient Khorezm on the right bank of the Amu Darya. That expedition became my school of archaeology. It showed me how rich and insufficiently studied the history of Karakalpakstan was.

Savitsky later invited me to work at the museum in Nukus. He was not only a remarkable artist, collector and museum builder. He taught a whole generation to see culture as an interconnected whole. Through him, I understood that archaeology is not simply excavation. It is a way of understanding people, their worldview and their relationship with nature, history and art.

Karakalpakstan is an open-air museum. It has hundreds of archaeological sites, from antiquity to the late medieval period. Ancient Khorezm stood at the meeting point of major Eurasian trade and cultural routes. Nomadic and settled worlds interacted here, alongside influences from Iran, the Mediterranean, the steppe, Turkic states, the Arab world and Central Asia. Irrigation systems created from at least the first millennium BCE made possible cities, fortresses, palaces and settlements in desert landscapes.

The region’s spiritual history is equally layered. Zoroastrian, Buddhist, early Christian and Islamic traditions all left traces in monuments, rituals, ornament and symbolism. Archaeology records those processes in layers of soil and objects, while oral tradition preserves them in images and stories. Both are necessary.

Savitsky’s importance also lies in the way he built the museum. When he founded it in 1966, he created departments of archaeology and ethnography alongside the art collection. He had first come to Karakalpakstan through the Khorezm Archaeological and Ethnographic Expedition, and during fieldwork he produced hundreds of paintings and drawings of archaeological sites, village life, plants, animals and the region’s changing light. He was interested in the smallest details of traditional culture – a ceramic ornament, carved wood, a textile pattern or a piece of metalwork – because he saw each of them as a language through which a people expressed its worldview.

His study of Karakalpak traditional woodcarving remains especially important to me. He showed how the decorative culture of the region emerged from the meeting of settled agricultural traditions and the nomadic culture of the steppe. At the same time, he understood that many Russian artists of the 1920s and 1930s had been erased from public life by repression and ideological pressure. He largely gave up his own artistic career to find, protect and collect their work. That devotion created one of the world’s most important collections of Russian avant-garde and early Soviet art.

He was equally committed to the emerging Karakalpak school of painting. Kydyrbay Saipov, then the region’s only professionally trained artist, became his close friend and ally. Together they encouraged younger artists, organised exhibitions and helped create an artistic environment in which remarkable talents could develop. Among the painters associated with this generation were Zhollybay Izentaev, Zholdasbek Kutymuratov, Abdulla Erimbetov, Bazarbay Serekeev, Aman Atabaev, Murat Khudaybergenov, Daribay Tazhimuratov and Amangeldy Utegenov.

My strongest memory of Savitsky is still from the expeditions. He was modest and extraordinarily hardworking. He could spend hours examining a ceramic vessel, an ornament or a fragment of cloth, explaining its symbols and the techniques used to make it. Every find and every meeting with a traditional craftsperson delighted him. He did not merely study culture; he lived through it.

Which landscapes or historical places best reveal the depth of Karakalpakstan?

The Ustyurt Plateau is unlike anywhere else. Its chinks, cliffs and canyons are magnificent, but the landscape also contains ancient and medieval burial mounds, necropolises, caravanserais, wells and signal towers. They recall the routes that connected East and West across an extremely demanding environment. The saiga is a symbol of Ustyurt, and images of these animals appear in rock art thousands of years old.

The former seabed is also becoming a new and extraordinary landscape. It attracts ecologists, geologists, archaeologists and palaeontologists. Along former shorelines, people find fossil shells, marine remains and, according to local accounts, even the teeth of ancient sharks – reminders that the geological history of this territory reaches back to seas far older than the Aral.

Karakalpakstan is therefore much more than a disaster zone. It is a place where one can read the history of the Earth and the history of human civilisation in the same landscape. Natural and cultural heritage are inseparable here.

Can the region recover environmentally, and what has changed through the planting of saxaul?

When the sea dried, its exposed bottom became a saline desert. Dust and salt storms carried sand, salt and chemical residues over enormous distances. Planting saxaul, kandym and other desert shrubs was one of the most effective ways to stabilise the soil. After decades of work, vegetation now covers significant areas of the former seabed, reducing the intensity of dust and salt storms and creating conditions for new ecosystems. Some animals and birds are returning.

This does not mean the crisis is solved. Safe drinking water, efficient water management, public health, education, transport and sustainable employment remain fundamental. Climate change adds pressure by altering rainfall, accelerating glacier loss in the Pamirs and Tien Shan, and changing the flow of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya. The full restoration of the former sea is an extremely difficult question and cannot depend on one country alone. It requires regional cooperation and rational water use.

The most important lesson is that economic development must not again be built on the assumption that nature is inexhaustible. Any new investment should create dignified local employment, use water responsibly and meet high environmental standards. The people who live here must benefit directly.

Whose work should people read or see if they want to understand Karakalpakstan beyond the Aral Sea disaster?

First, I would name Berdakh, the great Karakalpak poet. His work became one of the spiritual foundations of the national culture. It speaks about the history of the people, moral values, love of the native land and the search for justice and freedom. No less important is Ajiniyaz, one of Central Asia’s major poets and thinkers, whose writing celebrated solidarity between peoples, humanism and respect for human dignity.

In the visual arts, one must of course return to Igor Savitsky and to the artists whose work he helped preserve. Rafael Matevosyan is also indispensable to the memory of the Aral Sea. For more than half a century he painted its water, boats, fishermen and everyday life. Gulls appear repeatedly in his work. After the sea had largely disappeared, he would visit the exposed seabed and say: ‘I believe my gulls will return.’ Those words were later inscribed on his grave.

There is also a deeply personal figure I do not want to omit: my uncle, the Karakalpak writer and translator Shaniyaz Mambetmuratov. He died when he was only 43, but he left an important mark on the literature and culture of Karakalpakstan. The Aral Sea was at the centre of his writing – its open waters, the Amu Darya, fishermen, the landscape and the lives, labour and hopes of ordinary people.

He was extraordinarily well read. It seemed that there was hardly a book in Muynak’s municipal library that he had not opened. He translated foreign authors into Karakalpak, hoping both to introduce local readers to world literature and to show outsiders the richness of his own culture. In the 1960s and 1970s, he used to say that one day Europeans would come to Muynak and the Aral Sea to discover the beauty, history and culture of this region. At the time, that sounded almost impossible.

Part of his work was translated into German and a collection was published in Germany, although he did not live to see it. In a sense, his prediction has now come true: people arrive from across the world, not only to witness an ecological catastrophe but also to learn about Karakalpakstan’s literature, culture, history and inhabitants. As long as his books are read, his voice continues to speak.

Dospanov shared two of his uncle’s poems, translated here, especially for Novastan, from Karakalpak via Russian.

The Seagull

1959

— Seagull, soaring high across the sky,
You seem a messenger of my love.
Why do you circle anxiously above me,
Calling me once more towards the seashore?

— Seagull, flying through the blue of heaven,
Why do you fill my heart with restless thoughts?
Had I not caressed the waves of the sea,
Would spring ever have returned to these shores?

The Blue Sea

1958

Do not judge me harshly when I praise the sea;
Simply look towards the blue edge of the earth.
Like a festive salute marking a great victory,
The blue sea laughs before my eyes.

This blue sea is my native Aral;
With all my soul, I breathe its fresh wind.
And should you wish to know what makes it so majestic,
Know this: within it live both my destiny and my age.

Who else should journalists speak to while the memory of the old Muynak is still alive?

They should begin with the remaining members of the older generation: former fishermen, ship captains, workers from the fish-canning plant and residents of the coastal settlements. They remember the cranes, boats, factory, crowded waterfront, fresh fish and uninterrupted horizon. Such memories cannot be reconstructed from official archives once the witnesses are gone.

It is equally important to record artists, musicians, traditional craftspeople and guardians of oral culture. Young ecologists, archaeologists, museum professionals, historians and civic activists should also be heard, because they connect the past with the region’s future. And journalists should not overlook teachers, farmers, doctors, students and women raising families. The real history of Karakalpakstan is made from many ordinary lives, not only from famous names.

We are among the last living witnesses of the full Aral Sea. That creates a duty to preserve oral testimony, family photographs, private archives, household objects, songs and stories. These materials are as important to the region’s heritage as archaeological monuments and museum collections.

What gives you hope when you think about the future of Muynak and Karakalpakstan?

Above all, people give me hope. Despite everything this region has experienced, its inhabitants have not lost their love for their land or their willingness to work for its future. Human resilience has always been the main strength of the Aral region.

I see a younger generation studying foreign languages, ecology, archaeology, art, museum work, science and information technology. Many of them do not want to turn away from their history. They want to preserve it and show the world that Karakalpakstan is a region of extraordinary cultural heritage and future possibilities.

The world’s growing interest also matters. Archaeologists, artists, scientists, photographers, travellers and students come not only because of the Aral Sea, but also for ancient Khorezm, Ustyurt, the Savitsky Museum and Karakalpak culture.

If I had unlimited resources, I would set three priorities. The first would be human welfare: drinking water, health care, education, infrastructure and good jobs, particularly so that young people can imagine a future here. The second would be ecological restoration and responsible use of natural resources, including water-saving technologies and continued planting on the former seabed. The third would be culture, science and international cooperation. I would like Karakalpakstan to become a major centre for archaeology, museum partnerships, artistic residencies, environmental education and cultural tourism.

The future cannot rest only on natural resources or only on economic growth. It must bring people, nature and culture into balance.

Is there one story you would most like European readers to carry with them?

I would tell them the story of the Camel Trail. Elders said that long before modern roads, caravan routes crossed Ustyurt and the shores of the Aral Sea. Camels connected Khorezm with the Volga region, Kazakhstan and lands farther east and west. They sensed the route better than people and could find wells and caravanserais even at night, in sandstorms or fog.

One trail, used by generations of caravans, led towards the Aral Sea. It was not merely a road. It carried trade, encounters, knowledge and culture. Merchants, craftsmen, poets and pilgrims travelled along it. Goods moved with songs, legends, ideas and traditions.

As the sea retreated, harbours vanished and routes were covered by sand. Yet people say the Camel Trail did not disappear. It survived in memory. You may no longer see it on a map, but you can feel it when travelling through the region. It is an invisible thread between past and present.

For me, the legend means that the most important roads do not cross only deserts and steppes. They pass through human memory. Today, the trail can acquire a new meaning. Where caravans once carried goods, it can now carry research, cultural projects, art and friendship between peoples. It can become a symbol of dialogue between Central Asia and Europe.

Perhaps the trail no longer exists on the ground. But while memory remains alive, the road never ends.

Mathieu Lemoine, Editor-in-Chief for Novastan-English

The post “My Childhood Was Spent on the Shore of a Sea That No Longer Exists” appeared first on Novastan English.

Like many countries, Kazakhstan is facing major environmental problems. Kazakh media outlet The Village has listed the environmental issues most frequently discussed in the country.

Kazakhstan continues to actively address the environmental challenges affecting different regions of the country.

In recent years, the environmental situation in major cities has deteriorated significantly: the basins of many water bodies are gradually drying up, emissions of harmful substances exceed permitted levels several times over, and industrial enterprises are releasing chemicals into the environment in an uncontrolled manner.

Kazakh media outlet The Village has listed the main ecological problems facing the country.

Air pollution

For many years, the East Kazakhstan region remained the country’s largest industrial region. According to the Bureau of National Statistics, more than 15,000 companies are registered there. These include major industrial giants such as Kazzinc, KazMinerals, the Ust-Kamenogorsk Titanium and Magnesium Plant, the Ulba Metallurgical Plant and others.

The mining and metallurgical company Kazzinc, which produces zinc, copper, lead and other precious metals, is the most significant source of pollution. According to the region’s ecology department, in 2021 Kazzinc accounted for almost half of all pollutant emissions in the region.

Read also on Novastan : Au Kazakhstan, les villes industrielles souffrent de la pollution atmosphérique

According to Kazhydromet, in the city of Ust-Kamenogorsk, the region’s administrative centre, unfavourable weather conditions are recorded around 100 days a year. These are days when there is no wind in the region, causing harmful substances to accumulate in the air. During such periods, scientists even advise residents to avoid long walks outdoors, not to open windows, and to prioritise distance learning for schoolchildren.

Today, the East Kazakhstan region tops the national ranking for cancer incidence. The rate in the oblast is 55% higher than the national average: 321 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. Residents themselves say they have been experiencing a sweet, metallic taste in their mouths for years.

Polluted rivers

Senator Olga Bulavkina has highlighted the critical level of air pollution in Ust-Kamenogorsk, noting that hydrogen chloride levels exceed the norm by nine times. She has also linked this pollution to the increase in cancer cases.

Representatives of the prosecutor’s office have stated that, out of the region’s 165 landfills, only 22 comply with environmental requirements — just 13%.

It should be noted that pollution of local water bodies is regularly recorded in the region. In May 2019, residents noticed that the Berezovka River had turned bright green. Following an inspection, scientists found that the water contained 140 times the permitted level of manganese, 44 times the permitted level of zinc, twice the permitted level of ammonium, and five times the permitted levels of sulphate and copper.

Kazzinc was held responsible for uncontrolled discharges and fined 8 million tenge, or €14,640. In July 2023, residents noticed that the water in the Filippovka River had turned milky white. Kazzinc again paid a fine, this time of 50 million tenge, or €91,589.

Modernising industrial facilities to reduce pollution

It is important to note that many rivers in East Kazakhstan are tributaries of the Irtysh. They form part of a single ecosystem. When one body of water is polluted, there is always a risk that harmful substances will enter other channels. The water from these rivers is used not only for drinking water, but also for agriculture and for the operation of thermal power plants and industrial enterprises.

Read also on Novastan : Kazakhstan : une hécatombe de cygnes causée par la pollution

As a result, the Ust-Kamenogorsk metallurgical complex had to modernise its sulphur gas purification units, which should reduce sulphur emissions by 10 to 20%. In Ridder, a new workshop was built, reducing emissions by 714 tonnes in 2024.

On 9 October 2024, it was announced that an environmental air monitoring system was being introduced and that eco-offices would be opened to allow residents to monitor air quality themselves. Work is also under way to improve the emissions monitoring system. This was stated by the akim, or local government representative, of the East Kazakhstan region, Ermek Kosherbayev.

Air pollution in Almaty

In January 2025, Almaty topped the ranking of the world’s most polluted megacities. According to environmentalists from the Almaty Air Initiative, one year of living in the city is equivalent to smoking 487 cigarettes. Annual emissions of pollutants into the atmosphere amount to around 125,000 tonnes.

In addition, according to a survey carried out by the Almaty Air Initiative in August 2024, 42% of respondents believe that air quality in their neighbourhood is poor or very poor. One in six residents is considering moving because of the poor environmental conditions.

Read also on Novastan : La pollution de l’air toujours aussi forte en Asie centrale

In 2024, 202 days of high air pollution were recorded in Almaty. Specialists recommend that residents limit their time outdoors and use protective masks, particularly those who are especially sensitive.

At a meeting of the Public Council, data on the main sources of pollution in Almaty were presented. Motor transport is the city’s main source of air pollution, accounting for around 60% of total emissions. Industrial enterprises also heavily pollute the environment, emitting around 27.5% of all harmful substances. The use of coal heating in private homes also contributes to air pollution, accounting for around 11% of total emissions.

The government is aware of the problem

In November 2022, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, addressing Almaty residents, raised the issue of air pollution in the city. He noted that the state of the environment has a direct impact on people’s health and lives.

During a meeting with residents of the Zhetysu district, Almaty akim Yerbolat Dossayev explained how the city intends to address environmental problems. According to him, the full modernisation of Combined Heat and Power Plant 2 will be completed in 2026, which should reduce emissions by 90%.

Transport is also being actively developed. By the end of 2026, the city has promised to replace all public transport with environmentally friendly vehicles.

Waste disposal

Waste and rubbish are also among Almaty’s main environmental problems. A large number of illegal dumps have accumulated in the city, and waste recycling remains difficult. During a meeting with residents of the Almaty region in October 2022, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev called for all tourist routes to be equipped with rubbish bins and for waste collection and sorting to be organised. He also instructed the Ministry of Internal Affairs to step up efforts to bring those responsible for illegal dumps to justice.

Plans are being discussed to build a waste recycling plant in the Ile district and another facility in the Karasay district, which would recycle waste and produce electricity from greenhouse gases.

Also read on Novastan : Décharges sauvages au Kazakhstan : d’où viennent-elles, et comment lutter contre ?

As early as 26 February 2022, a rally for clean air was organised in Almaty. Participants called on the authorities to take urgent and comprehensive measures, arguing that the city was on the brink of an ecological disaster. Among the participants were activists, experts, students and families with children.

At the rally, expert Aiymgul Kerimray accused the authorities of manipulating emissions data and called for a transition to European standards for assessing pollution. Activist Asiya Tulesova called on the state not only to listen, but also to act.

The drying up of the Aral Sea

Until 1960, the Aral Sea was the fourth-largest lake in the world. But because of Soviet irrigation projects, the Syr Darya and Amu Darya rivers, which fed the basin, were diverted.

As a result, over the past 60 years, the Aral Sea has shrunk by a factor of three, while its volume has decreased fifteenfold. Its water level has fallen by 29 metres. In the 1980s, the sea split into two parts: the northern Small Aral and the southern Large Aral. This tragedy led to the migration of most of the region’s wildlife, the disappearance of fish, and the emergence of the Aralkum Desert.

Also read on Novastan : Le totalitarisme de l’irrigation a tué la mer d’Aral

In 2023, the akim of the Kyzylorda region, Nurlybek Nalibayev, stated that tens of millions of tonnes of salt and dust are carried by the wind every year from the dried-up bed of the Aral Sea. They travel thousands of kilometres. “The only way to prevent salt from spreading beyond the sea area is to plant saxauls,” a type of Central Asian tree, he said.

According to the akim, 350,000 hectares of saxaul were planted on the dried-up bed of the Aral Sea between 2021 and 2022.

A full restoration of the sea is impossible

However, scientists have expressed doubts about the possibility of fully restoring the Aral Sea. Ecologist Yevgeny Simonov has said that the region’s water deficit is increasing and that it is more realistic to speak of preserving delta water bodies and wetlands than of fully restoring the sea.

Mels Yeleusizov, president of the environmental movement Tabigat, notes that the drying up of the Aral Sea leads to the spread of salty dust, which settles on glaciers and accelerates their melting. He stresses that the disappearance of this body of water has a negative impact on Kazakhstan’s ecosystem, contributing to desertification and the deterioration of the region’s environment.

Want more Central Asia in your inbox? Subscribe to our newsletter here.

At the expense of the state and regional budgets, 101,000 hectares were planted in 2021. In 2022, phytoremediation work was carried out over an area of 250,000 hectares, and in 2023 over an area of 193,200 hectares. From 2024 to 2025, these phytoremediation efforts targeted 556,200 hectares.

Thanks to agreements reached with neighbouring countries, a total of 1.6 billion cubic metres of water had been sent to the northern part of the Aral Sea by the end of March 2025. In April of the same year, the total volume of water in the northern Aral Sea stood at 22.1 billion cubic metres, 3.2 billion cubic metres more than at the beginning of 2022.

Daniyar Beisembayev and Sultan Temirkhan
Journalists for The Village

Translated from Russian by Sophie Combaret and from French by Mathieu Lemoine

Proofread by Elise Medina (French version)

The post Overview of environmental issues in Kazakhstan appeared first on Novastan English.

Snow has fallen on the Burabay mountains and lake. Very popular with city dwellers in summer, but rather neglected in winter, the Burabay State National Nature Park was created in 2000. A first attempt to protect this area, which is important to the Kazakh people, was made in 1935, but the forests were logged again from 1951 onwards.
Kazakhstan’s National Park status does not protect natural areas from tourism or industrial development projects. Some parks have been downgraded in the past, for example to allow a ski resort to be built at Kök Jailoo or accommodation to be built at Ile-Alatau.

Credits : Hélène Garnier (France, @suneclat)

Find all of our photos of the day. You can buy some of these and receive them at home: here is the list! If you can't find your picture in the list, mail us to photo@novastan.org.

The post Snow over Burabay appeared first on Novastan English.

Hundreds of dead seals were discovered in Turkmenistan, with the cause of their death unclear.  Government officials seem to want to conceal the mass deaths of the Caspian seal, which is listed as an endangered species.This article was originally published on Novastan’s German website on 17 March 2021. The Caspian Sea has been the site of an ecological tragedy, the cause of which is not yet known. Radio Azatlyk, the Turkmen service of Radio Free Europe, reported that on 4 February, hundreds of seal corpses and thousands of dead fish were found along the Turkmen coast. The Caspian seal is classified as an endangered species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). According to an eyewitness account last December, the corpses washed ashore on a stretch of coast near the harbour city of Türkmenbaşy. “Members of the naval forces recovered many dead seals in January. There were hundreds. In addition, there are many dead fish and birds on the coast […] our superiors require us to stay silent. Scientists from Ashgabat are trying to find out the seals’ cause of death, whether it might be a virus or waste dumped by local factories,” a Turkmen border guard interviewed by Radio Azatlyk explained.

The journalists of Radio Azatlyk were not able to obtain a comment from the Turkmen Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection. However, there are indications that the cause of death was natural. At about the same time, numerous dead seals were discovered on the opposite coast of the Caspian Sea.

Parallels with Dagestan

The Moscow Times reported on 12 December 2020 that hundreds of seal carcasses were washed onto land in the Russian Republic of Dagestan in the days preceding the announcement. The Russian authorities started investigations, but had not been able to determine the cause until now. Initial investigations indicated that the seals may have died of natural causes. “The condition of the seals’ inner organs does not corroborate the hypothesis of poisoning by heavy metals or pesticides,” said biologist Vyacheslav Bisikov, who was involved in the investigations, according to the Russian news agency Interfax. The scientists were also able to rule out the possibility that the seals were collateral damage of fishing activities. On 26 January, the Russian news agency TASS reported that one of the possible causes of death could be the release of natural gas, according to Scientists from the Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences. “Similar changes in the tissues of internal organs were found in all the pathologically examined seals. […] These changes may develop as a result of hypoxia and they indicate death by asphyxiation,” TASS quotes from a statement by the scientists. The researchers name the release of gases from seismic tremors or mud volcanoes at the bottom of the Caspian Sea as the most likely cause. The researchers furthermore succeeded in establishing that the seals died one to six weeks before they were discovered, meaning that they had died in November. Considering the prevailing winds and the surface currents, it is assumed that the animals died out in open water. Furthermore, 40 seismic tremors were registered in November alone. “Under calm wind conditions, local methane emissions above the sea surface can form gaseous air bubbles, which are unsuitable for respiration. This could very likely have led to the mass deaths of the Caspian seals, which were migrating north along the coast of Dagestan to their breeding grounds at the time,” the scientists conclude.

An endangered species

The Caspian seal is the only mammal in the Caspian Sea. The IUCN granted it the status of an endangered species in 2008. Since 2020 the seal is registered in Russia’s Red Book. The number of seals, whose colonies are spread out over Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Russia, is contested. “The last aerial count – a type of population census – was conducted in 2005. About 10,000 animals were registered at the time,” the Kazakh biologist Assel Baimukanova explained in September 2018. According to Interfax, Vyacheslav Bisikov assumes that “the populations of Caspian seals […] encompass 270,000 to 300,000 individuals”. On the Russian channel TV Rain, zoologist Ilya Gomiranov estimates that the population has decreased from a million to between 40,000-60,000 seals. According to Assel Baimukanova, the reasons for the population reduction are varied, including the decrease of ice cover due to global warming, and the pollution of the Caspian Sea with toxins and illegal fishing. Mass deaths of seals occur time and again. In 2000, for instance, more than 10,000 Caspian Seals died of a viral infection. Read more on Novastan:Troubled waters: Turkmenistan’s environmental policy As Interfax reports, hundreds of dead seals washed ashore on the Dagestani coast in 2012 and 2016 after severe autumn storms. The precise cause of death could not be established, Russian fishing authorities said. Last October, mass animal deaths occurred not far from the Kamchatka peninsula in eastern Russia.  According to official reports, the causes were natural. The investigations in Dagestan suggest that the animals which washed ashore in Turkmenistan died of the same causes. Nevertheless, the Turkmen authorities would do well to investigate the cause of death of the endangered animals instead of covering it up.  

Written by Robin Roth

Translated from German by Nora Neinonen

Edited by Mari Paine

For more news and analysis from Central Asia, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Telegram, Linkedin or Instagram.

The post Hundreds of lifeless Caspian seals washed ashore in Turkmenistan appeared first on Novastan English.

As winter arrives in Bishkek, the sun does not shine on Kyrgyzstan’s capital city and the inhabitants have to live in a constant cloud. This is no fog created by winter precipitations, but a grey haze, slowly intoxicating the residents. That smog has become one of Bishkek’s pressing problems over the past few years.

On November 7, 2021, the capital of Kyrgyzstan was the city with the highest level of polluted air in the world, with an AQI of 269 (Air Quality Index), the AQI norm being 100, describes Kyrgyz media Kloop. A year ago, Bishkek was already the city with the highest level of polluted air in the world, pointed Kyrgyz press agency 24.kg, and has been several years in the top of the cities with the most polluted air in the world.

For more news and analysis from Central Asia, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Telegram, Linkedin or Instagram.

Illegal settlements are mostly affected

But the smog most affects residents living in illegal buildings, where hundreds of thousands of people from the different regions of Kyrgyzstan live in cramped conditions, says Movegreen. One of these areas is Archa-Beshik, standing in the south-east part of Bishkek. Archa-Beshik is located only 40 minutes from the center of the capital, but it creates a sharp contrast against the background of luxury houses, smooth cobblestones, and trendy coffeeshops of the center.Read more on Novastan : Kyrgyzstan: why Bishkek’s air quality is so poorIn the newly-built neighborhood, roads are uneven: some residents are lucky to have asphalt, others only have gravel covering, and the unluckiest ones have to walk through mud and slush. This also reflects on the architecture of Archa-Beshik, where uniform buildings are chaotically located next to run-down barracks. Occasionally, some rich mansions with covered courtyards can be found among the buildings of Archa-Beshik.The first residents arrived in the late 1990s, and the neighborhood then started to build up, attracting more and more people from the other regions of the country and those in search of a cheap plot to purchase. The plots in Archa-Beshik now cost tens of thousands of dollars, and wealthy people come here to build mansions away from the city fuss.

36-year-old Aliya Baktiyarova (name changed) lives in Archa-Beshik and moved here from Kemin 20 years ago, when the demand for land in illegal buildings was not so high. Aliya Baktiyarova lives here with her husband and mother-in-law, raising up three children and expecting a fourth one.

“When you have nothing to feed your children and not enough money, the smog is the least of your worries”

The family lives on one of the alleys, in a modest single-story accommodation; while Aliya Baktiyarova and her husband are working, her mother-in-law looks after the children. She works as a seamstress, not far from home: every day at 9 am, Aliya Baktiyarova sits down at her sewing machine and only stops working at 9 pm. Now seven months pregnant, with her big belly, under the rumble of the sewing machines, she deftly sews dresses for hours on end, sometimes stretching her sore back.The one rule in the sewing workshops is the following: the more you sew, the more you get paid. And the Baktiyarovs really need money, as the police officer’s salary of Aliya Baktiyarova’s husband of 14 000 soms (£122) is not enough to feed the family.With the cold weather, the Baktiyarov family has more expenses: they need to dress the children and heat the house. The family has been heating with coal for many years; this year, they bought five tons of coal, at 5 000 soms (£43) per ton. “When you have nothing to feed your children and not enough money, the smog is the least of your worries. The smog is not only harmful to the children, but also to old people, who get sick. It is very harmful. But we don’t have a choice, if we don’t heat the house, the children will get sick. We’d rather use firewood, but it burns too fast”, Aliya Baktiyarova explains to Novastan.At the moment, only one company, Gazprom Neft, provides gas supply for houses in Kyrgyzstan. In order to supply your house with gas, you have to build a gas pipe to the house from the main pipes, costing 600 soms (£5.22) per meter. Then, you need to buy a boiler, costing tens of thousands of soms, and pay 18 soms (£0.15) per cubic meter of gas.

Gas is too expensive for most…

In Archa-Beshik, very few houses are connected to gas heating, it is expensive for most of the families living here, like the Baktiyarov family and their neighbors.To bring gas to their alley, the family and their neighbors need to gather about 22 000 soms (£191) from each house for laying the pipes. Aliya Baktiyarova and her husband barely managed to gather the amount for their contribution, but their neighbors are in no hurry for gas supply. “We can’t buy a stove at the moment, because the cheapest one costs 25 000 soms (£217.8). The good ones cost anything from 70 000 soms (£610). In total, altogether with the equipment, it would cost 100 000 soms (£871). If the state had come up with government support, had provided stoves, or at least had conducted them for free, many people would have agreed. So now, until every neighbor on the whole alley does not gather about 22 000 soms, we won’t be connected. On 20 people, five can’t afford to chip in”, Aliya Baktiyarova says.

…but not for everyone

A few kilometers away from the Baktiyarovs, lives another family, the Smanovys: they have been living for already four years in a paved beige mansion. Gulnur Smanova is 55 years old, she is an experienced businesswoman and used to live in Kazan, Russia, where she spent several decades of her life. She moved to Archa-Beshik in search of a quieter place far from the concrete jungle to spend her old age.In Kyrgyzstan, Gulnur Smanova makes things to order and her children sell them in Russia. She lives in Archa-Beshik with her husband, her son, her daughter-in-law and her three grandchildren. She installed gas supply in her house in 2019, as soon as it was proposed to her; it costed her 150 000 soms (£1 307), which was not too big a cost for her. “There wasn’t any difficulty in conducting gas. Everything went normal. Our two-story house is 280 square meters. In Bishkek, there’s only one cold month during winter. Since the house is well insulated, we only pay 15 000 soms for the cold month, and about 9 000 (£78) for the other months [for gas bill]. We’ve been heating the house since October, because we have very young grandchildren”, Gulnur Smanova says to Novastan.According to her, her family no longer goes out for walks in winter because of the smog. On top of that, some of her neighbors constantly heat with coal, causing a black stream of smoke from the pipes to get into other houses. “But I understand them. People have different budgets. Connecting to gas is expensive. It would be better if people and cars would switch to gas. But it all comes down to money”, Gulnur Smanova regrets.

Authorities are selling discounted coal

In Kyrgyzstan, gas is a luxury, and most residents prefer more affordable local coal from Karakeche mines in the Naryn region, in the center of the country. The same coal is also used at the Bishkek thermal power plant, one of the largest consumers of coal.The coal of Karakeche is not only cheaper than gas, but also much cheaper than the coal imported from Kazakhstan. Nevertheless, the ecologists of Movegreen consider it to be brown coal, which has a higher ash content than the imported one. It also has a lower heating value, which means that people need to heat their house more often.Since mid-November, the Kyrgyz authorities have opened a point of sale for coal at a discounted price in order to provide economic support to the citizens. While a ton of coal from Karakeche was sold for anything from 5 000 soms (£43.6), the authorities sold it for about 3 000 soms (£26.1), described KyrgyzCoal (KyrgyzKomur) in a Facebook post.This led to thousands of people waiting in line for several days, hoping to buy cheaper coal. Among those people, Aliya Baktiyarova’s husband waited for several days, succeeding to purchase some of discounted coal. “My husband received two tons, and it was brought to us within a week. There were a lot of people. In order to get more coal, you had to wait in line again. Some people bought this coal for 3 000 soms a ton, and then resold it somewhere else for 5 000”, Aliya Baktiyarova says.

Saving money to buy coal

40-year-old Nurzhigit Kyrgyzbayev, a resident of Enesay estate and a father of five, was also waiting in line. On November 16, the man reported that he used to heat his house with electric heaters, but because of the ban on their use due to the energy crisis, he fully switched to coal. “My position in line was number 1080. I waited in line for four hours. During the heating season, we spend more money, at least 15 000 soms (£130.7) for coal. We start saving money already during fall. There’s a limitation on electricity, and gas is expensive to install. At least they’re giving that. The stress is now on coal, because common people now all use it to heat their houses”, he says to Novastan.While Nurzhigit Kyrgyzbayev was standing in line for coal, a serpentine of people wanting to save money despite the cold and the slush formed. Demand for coal increased in 2021 due to restrictions on the use of electric heaters: Kyrgyzstan faced an energy crisis in 2021 because of seasonal water shortages in the Toktogul reservoir, described American media Eurasianet.

“We will end up with a lot of health issues, like allergies and heart diseases”

The Kyrgyz authorities have repeatedly raised the issue of the smog over the capital’s sky, but it did not go beyond the stage of discussions. On December 16, Azamat Temirkulov, head of the Department for Analysis and Monitoring of reforms of the presidential administration, declared the importance of fighting the causes of the smog, but did not offer any solutions, relays Kyrgyz media Kaktus. “Our citizens are heating with coal in private houses and housing estates. Around Bishkek, there are 47 housing estates located in the eastern, northern, and western parts of the city. Those places are heated with coal. There is also the problem of the vehicles and their exhausts in the center of the capital, as well as chaotic urban constructions and the lack of wind blowing over the city”, Azamat Temirkulov reported, without proposing any solution.During the Parliament convocation in December 2021, legislator Baktybek Turusbekov also declared that the government did not take any measures and did not interact with the Parliament. “Several Prime ministers asked for this issue to be solved, and among them Akylbek Zhaparov. Not a single point of the program for the eradication of air pollution has been resolved, there are only statements. A city with a million of residents is breathing this; we will end up with a lot of health issues, like allergies and heart diseases”, Baktybek Turusbekov declared to 24.kg.On December 22, the economist Kuban Choroyev declared to Novastan that the type of heating used is directly linked to the level of income. According to him, if the price and the policy concerning conducting gas stay the same, Bishkek will continue breathing smog for many more years to come. “Many would switch to gas, because it’s convenient and not more expensive for heating than coal. But if you count installation, boiler and other expenses, it goes up to more than 1,000 dollars. Most people can’t afford it and prefer to spend less money on coal”, Kuban Choroyev explains. “The industry should pursue a better policy, for example, they could connect people to gas for free, and instead charge a little bit more monthly, along with the gas bill. There’s a failure in the industry. […] If the connection policy was changed, the capital could be fully connected to gas in three years.”

Aizirek Imanalieva Independent journalist based in Bishkek

The post Kyrgyzstan: Poverty hides behind Bishkek’s smog appeared first on Novastan English.

Overexploited, even looted by poachers, Kazakh liquorice is in danger, Traffic International has warned. In a report published in April, the NGO describes a critical situation with the risk of depletion of this slow-to-harvest resource. This article was originally published on Novastan’s French website on 10 June 2021.On 7 April, the NGO Traffic International, in association with the Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity in Kazakhstan (ACBK), released a report highlighting the dangers posed to liquorice reserves in Kazakhstan.By exposing the methods of the intensive and disorderly cultivation of liquorice in Kazakhstan over several years, the authors of this report attempt to warn about the alarming decline in the quantity of wild liquorice and propose concrete solutions to remedy this environmental disaster.

Liquorice, a unique culture

Cultivated since the 19th century in Kazakhstan, liquorice has long thrived in the wild in much of the country. Dried and then processed, liquorice root is used in around 100 different medicines, medicinal preparations or teas. Today it is the subject of ever-increasing international demand.

For more news and analysis from Central Asia, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Telegram, Linkedin or Instagram.

The cultivation of liquorice requires very specific conditions. For example, experts from the Kazakhstan Botanical Institute based in Almaty established that liquorice cultivation requires breaks of 6 to 8 years, during which the fields should remain untapped in order to regenerate. On the other hand, according to the same experts, only three-quarters of the liquorice roots should be removed so that the rest of the rhizomes can form new shoots.

Liquorice Poachers

According to the Traffic International report, however, a whole wild harvest economy has developed in Kazakhstan since 2011. There, collection has become uncontrolled and illegal. The biological protocols described by the Institute of Botany are no longer being observed. In the traditional liquorice harvesting areas, the situation now seems to repeat itself every year: wild cullenders are hired without an operating work permit. They raze entire areas and then leave the fields abandoned and looted.

Devastating extraction methods

These liquorice poachers use unsuitable tools that deeply affect the soil and leave little chance for root regeneration. Wild cullenders leave behind destroyed fields in which the immature roots for unsuitable liquorice remain exposed to the sun in immense furrows. Left exposed, the roots wither away when they are not capable of growing back.

These practices are associated with devastating effects on the ecosystem surrounding the liquorice growing areas. Fires are thus started regularly to weed the surroundings of the fields but, in doing so, they destroy neighbouring crops and deprive entire herds of pasture.

Exports and social consequences

The Traffic International report explains this overexploitation with the financial windfall that liquorice cultivation represents for local economies. Often, local cullenders are supporting whole villages.However, this illegal workforce remains largely underpaid: 34 tenges per kilogram of liquorice (£0.05) compared to several euros when exported, according to the United Nations data.According to the United Nation Commodity Trade (UNCT) database cited by Traffic International, the export volume of liquorice root has steadily increased in recent years in Kazakhstan. At its lowest in 2015 with less than 10 tonnes exported, exports reached nearly 90 tonnes in 2019. According to data from Tridge, a specialist on world trade in agri-food, Kazakhstan only holds 70th place among exporters with 2.9 million dollars (2.2 million pounds) of exports, or 0.09% of the total in 2020. The top three are China (27.5% of exports), India (11.4%) and Germany (7%).

A global environmental threat

In addition to the dangers posed by overexploitation of liquorice reserves, the authors of this report add the general deterioration of environmental conditions in the regions where it is cultivated. The construction of several hydraulic dams would thus profoundly modify the hydrological balance of many rivers, while the intensive ploughing of agricultural land and desertification would threaten the entire environment.

Towards more controls

To fight against these threats, Traffic International proposes a series of concrete measures addressed to the Kazakh government as well as to liquorice producers. In particular, it proposes to strengthen controls during illegal harvests, to strictly apply the recommendations of the Institute of Botany and phyto-introduction, or to geolocate precisely the geographical areas where the harvests take place so that the cultivation of liquorice will not be subject to annual overexploitation.More generally, the report by Traffic International underlines that the survival of liquorice reserves explicitly requires the establishment of a long-term sustainable development protocol. Specifically, it advocates for the use of certifications developed by the Fair Wild Foundation, the objective of which is to ensure more ecological, social, and economically viable business practices throughout the production chain.

Emmanuel Purguy Writer for Novastan

Translated from French by Maïté Saïzonou

Edited by Fiona Katherine Smith

The post Liquorice, an endangered commodity in Kazakhstan appeared first on Novastan English.

A PLACE IN CENTRAL ASIA – A victim of one of the greatest ecological catastrophes of the twentieth century, the Aral Sea, which is located in northern Uzbekistan and western Kazakhstan, has lost more than 75% of its total volume over many decades since the Soviet period. It has now reached the point of being called the “Aral Desert,” however, since the construction of a dam in 2005, hope seems to have returned to Aralsk, on the Kazakh side, as the water level begins to rise and fishermen fill their nets once again; but for how long?This article was originally published on Novastan’s French website on 28 May 2021. Since the 1960s, the cultivation of cotton rapidly increased in Central Asia. The Amu-Darya and the Syr-Darya rivers, which feed into the Aral Sea, were consequently diverted in order to irrigate the cotton plantations. The sea quickly lost 75% to 90% of its total volume and the water’s salinity increased dramatically, killing off most of the sea’s biodiversity. Water gave way to immense expanses of desert and salt flats. To this ecological disaster add social catastrophe: most of the population around the Aral Sea had relied on the fishing industry to make a living. Now, with the industry completely abandoned and villages left empty, a few families who stayed turned to camel breeding as a new way of life.

Located western Kazakhstan, Aralsk is a former fishing port and cotton trading centre. With the receding coast since the 1960s, the Aral Sea today is 90 kilometres from Aralsk. In strolling the city’s dusty streets at the end of 2019, it was difficult to imagine such a glorious seaside past; only the ruins of the port’s infrastructure and some maritime signage recalled a vanished prosperity that once was.

The Kokaral Dam, a bit of good news

The construction of the Kokaral Dam (or Dike Kokaral) in 2005 resulted in a six meter rise of the sea’s water level in the northern portion of the sea, called the Little Aral Sea. Inhabitants of Aralsk found hope in this, even though the sea remained more than 30 kilometres from its old piers. Read more on Novastan: The Aral Sea artemia: small shrimp, high stakes The stalls of the only fish shop in the city were soon stocked again and the main roads were finally paved, which led to a whisper of optimism among the sandy streets of the city.

In order to develop tourism, a few local guides began taking their chances with the imposing shells of old rusty boats. These old boats are in danger of disappearing as locals cut them up into metal sheets to reuse or sell. In the 2000s, fifteen of these boats were counted; at the end of 2019, only one remained. Even so, some Kazakh tourists enjoy a hot spring, formerly below sea level, for its rumoured miraculous powers.

In Tastubek, water is money

In Tastubek, located about one hundred kilometre’s from Aralsk, life goes on. The rise in sea level put fishermen back to work and woke up this village, which had been snoozing for several decades. The old ships had set out to sea again, new houses began to pop up; from only 90 houses in 1960, the village saw its population reduced to eight households in 1996, but in 2019 there were 32. Six o’clock in the evening, and the weather is ideal: the sun is bright and the wind non-existent. Nourljan and Arman collect the nets they untangled in the afternoon and take a spin in their UAZ, a Soviet off-road vehicle commonly used here. With the recent rise in water level, the sea is only a ten-minute drive from the village. At the shore they hop into their father’s old boat armed with three nets and a GPS tag, setting up for the following morning. With optimism and focus, these two young men are ready to fish some of the 15 species now reintroduced into the Aral Sea.

Determined fishermen

Alarms go off at five o’clock the following morning. Nourljan is hopeful as the calm of the previous night promises an excellent catch. A few minutes later Arman joins him in the UAZ. The bumpy former seabed tests the vehicle’s suspension and reinforces the determination of the two fishermen.

A 60-year-old widow, Vayan, lives with her son, Nourljan. When is he is out fishing, Vayan takes care of the house and helps her granddaughter with her homework. At noon, as with every return of the fishermen, fish will take the seat of honour at the table. She prepares camel meat for the evening meal, “The men go fishing and the women tend to the camels. That’s how it works here,” says Vayan, but she hopes her granddaughter will one day leave the village to study at a university.

The fishermen are active again

The three nets are collected and fish cover the floor; it’s time to go back. Arman’s face is serious: the catch wasn’t good today, despite ideal conditions. Only 12 kilograms were caught, versus about fifty on a typical day — a bit of respite for the seabed. Quotas are rarely respected in the Aral Sea, now a chronic victim of overfishing.

Tastubek has rediscovered its former glory. The fishermen live comfortably from their labour, and electricity finally lights their homes, but not all villages along the former shores of the Aral Sea have the same fate. Too far from the shore, some villages remain dormant, sometimes buried under sand; rambling and raising camels remain the only escape from an ordinary morning in this new life in the desert of the Aral Sea.

The disaster continues

The renewed enthusiasm of fishermen and of government announcements seems like a victory: the Aral Sea is saved! However, the reality is much more nuanced. If the sea’s disappearance has been partly avoided, the disaster continues against a background of optimism. The announcement of the sea’s miracle rescue has only served to increase local overconsumption of water and overfishing, accentuated by renewed demographic pressure. Worse still, the cultivation of rice and cotton, massive consumers of water, has not diminished in recent years. Moreover, if the Kazakh side is doing better, the historic Uzbek side remains hopelessly arid.

The Kokaral Dam has become a symbol of the mirage of Aral — a deliverer of promises and future disappointments. Many locals talk about increasing the height of the dam, which would allow water to return to the port of Aralsk, but skeptics have already become accustomed to the absurdity of living in a port with no sea. « A Place in Central Asia » is a collection of articles about under-represented or under-reported places in the region. Find out more by clicking here. Want to participate? Send your ideas about places to editorial[at]novastan.org.

Antoine Béguier Freelance Photographer

Translated from French by Judy Harter

Edited by Kiki Gray

For more news and analysis from Central Asia, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Telegram, Linkedin or Instagram.

The post Aralsk: Pictures of the Vanished Aral Sea appeared first on Novastan English.

Aral Sea Monument in Moynaq placed above the former shore of the lake features the depictions of the Aral Sea in 1960 and the current state that are clearly showing its recession and the scale of this environmental disaster.

Credit: Konstantin Novaković (Serbia)

Find all of our photos of the day here.

The post Aral Sea Monument appeared first on Novastan English.

There is little data about air pollution in Kazakhstan, though what does exist shows dangerous air quality levels. Researchers are working on measurements tools to give a more accurate picture of the issue and figure out what can be done.

Although pollution has long been a topic of conversation in Kazakhstan, air quality only recently became a key issue for Kazakhstani activists. The main obstacle to starting that conversation is the lack of a reliable, accessible and transparent data.

Want more Central Asia in your inbox? Subscribe to our newsletter here.

However, the existing data, as patchy as it is, still shows a concerning picture: at one point in winter 2021, Kazakhstan was in third position in the World Air Quality Index, a frequently updated ranking of countries from most to least polluted. In autumn and winter Nur-Sultan, the capital, is frequently in the top ten of cities with the worst air quality in the world. Another major Kazakhstani city, Almaty, was also described having “unhealthy” air in March 2021.

Despite this lack of data, the problem of air quality in Kazakhstan is still apparent. The source of the problem has been subject for debate until recently, with environmental scientists and activists emphasising the problem of low-quality coal-fired combined heat and power plants (CHPs) and government representatives largely blaming vehicles, shifting the focus to individual responsibility.

Dr Nassiba Baimatova is an environmental scientist from Kazakhstan who, alongside other researchers, is developing more robust air pollution measurement tools in Almaty. As a place with high levels of pollution but also lively debates about solutions, Almaty presents an interesting case for looking at cleaner energy transition in developing countries.

Less traffic during lockdown

There has been less traffic in Almaty during the first COVID-related quarantine, offering researchers a chance to examine how the role of vehicles in the air pollution problem in Almaty has been overestimated.

“The results show that even the lack of transportation cannot lead to a significant reduction in the level of pollution, since the nature of air pollution in Almaty city is complex and several major emission sources like CHP plants and the private sector dominate the pollution profile throughout the city,” Baimatova says. Analyzing the sources of the problem, she emphasises the role of low-quality coal both at power plants and in the private sector, on top of emissions from improperly maintained vehicles.

“The main problems of high air pollution in Almaty is associated with the combustion of low-quality coal at thermal power plants and heating in the private sector, as well as emissions from motor vehicles, that is low quality of motor fuel, obsolete cars and the lack of exhaust quality control systems,” she explains. “Plus, there are no reliable data sources – monitoring systems are either outdated or provide an insufficient reliable data for a real assessment of the state of air pollution.”

The problem of coal

The issue of coal and the air pollution it creates has been debated in Almaty and in the rest of the Kazakhstan for a while. A petition for modernization of combined heat and power plants and transition to a cleaner gas fuel has gathered more than 5000 signatures. This has led to an opportunity, as the gradual transition of combined heat and power plants from coal to a natural gas-based option has entered the discussion.

The concrete direction is still yet to be determined, said Baimatova, since some of the options proposed by the local government consider a combined source of energy, due to an increase in tariffs that comes with transitioning to natural gas-fired CHP plants. However, Baimatova maintains that a natural gas-only option is necessary to address the air quality issue: “To solve environmental problems, it is necessary to consider “natural gas only” options, which would allow for the complete elimination of ash and sulfur dioxide emissions, an ash dump, which is also a significant source of emissions.”

Read more: Kyrgyzstan: why Bishkek’s air quality is so poor

“According to the calculations presented, in an option 4 [‘natural gas only’] the tariff is only 4% higher than in the ‘coal’ option. However, in the ‘natural gas’ option, environmental benefits are obvious, barring any loopholes or data manipulation,” she adds.

Kazakhstan has also started a process of transitioning to natural gas-based CHP plants in Nur-Sultan. Two coal-fired CHP plants are to be modernized by the end of 2021, but the precise date of households switching to natural gas is yet to be determined, because the infrastructure isn’t ready and prices are yet to be set.

Beyond Almaty and Nur-Sultan

The problem of low air quality in the rest of Kazakhstan is no less pervasive and complex than in Almaty and Nur-Sultan. For example, in Ust-Kamenogorsk, a city in the east of the country that at times ranks as having the worst air quality, the pollution caused by CHP plants using low-quality coal is exacerbated by the pollution from several other industries’ plants. Both are hard to tackle, since the city has no easy access to natural gas reserves and environmental standards for plants are not transparent and can easily be manipulated.

The problem of air pollution in Kazakhstan is multifaceted and, if not dealt with on time, could have multiple harmful effects on the country’s future, Baimatova concludes. “In Kazakhstan, polluted air leads to 10,064 premature deaths per year, according to WHO data (from 2010). The economic cost of premature deaths due to air pollution in the country is 29.2 billion US dollars per year, or 9.3% of the GDP.

“Studies carried out assessed damage only to public health, without considering such indirect effects as damage to trees, wildlife, buildings, cars, agricultural yields, tourism development, as well as a decrease in investment attractiveness and the negative effect of migration. Air pollution can lead to significant economic losses due to the so-called “brain drain” effect.”

Nazira Kozhanova

For more news and analysis from Central Asia, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Telegram, Linkedin or Instagram.

The post Breathing space: air quality and energy transition in Kazakhstan appeared first on Novastan English.

LIFE BY THE RIVER. More than four million people in Kazakhstan and Russia live in the Ural river basin. They are watching the river grow shallower as time goes by. The main reason for this is human activity, scientists say. Can the Ural River’s fate be altered?

This article was originally published in Russian by the Kazakh media Vlast.kz as part of the “Developing Journalism: Exposing Climate Change” project.

Alexander Chibilev who lives in Orenburg in Russia, is one of the world’s foremost experts on the ecology of the Ural River, which flows from the Ural Mountains in Russia to the Caspian Sea in Kazakhstan. He knows everything about it, or nearly everything. He started studying the river in the 1980s and has written many scientific publications on the subject. But when given such compliments, Chibilev says: “When people ask me what to do, I know more about what not to do, since I can analyse the mistakes of the past.”

And, according to him, there were many mistakes. There’s the development of unproductive, low-yielding land, now damaging the entire river basin. The Iriklinsky Reservoir, approximately 100km north of the Russian-Kazakh border, built for a power plant. The factories that continue to poison the water even now that they have closed.  

Want more Central Asia in your inbox? Subscribe to our newsletter here.

“No one has calculated the cost of these actions. Pollutants have accumulated in the bottom sediments and we do not know how much there are. We have inherited a ticking time bomb. We are now reaping what the twentieth century has sowed. And the additional environmental damage every year only aggravates the situation,” Chibilev says.

There are only preliminary, very inaccurate, estimates of the volume of industrial pollution, published in 2017 in a special report of the preliminary results of research on the Ural River. The report is based on material by scientists from Kazakhstan (A. K. Kenshimov, M. Shortanbaev) and the Russian Federation (Yu. M. Nesterenko, S. V. Levykin), edited by S. K. Akhmetov.

The report states: “20 billion tons of industrial waste have accumulated in the Ural basin. It includes waste from processing plants, overburden, and surrounding rocks. Thousands of hectares of land were reserved for landfill and industrial waste sites.”

The Ural river basin is the area of land where other rivers, known as tributaries or affluents, flow and drain into the Ural, supplying its water. In total, the Ural has 58 tributaries, the largest being the Sakmara, the Elek (or Ilek) and the Shaǵan (or Chagan). Since the construction of the Iriklinsky reservoir in the upper Ural, 80% of the river’s water comes from the Sakmara.

Dams are not the only problem

“Generally, reservoirs do not help preserve a river’s ecosystem. Many reservoirs built in a basin’s upper and middle parts are used inefficiently. Their use should be reviewed,” Alexander Chibilev says.

Do dams and reservoirs really affect the river’s water levels? According to Chibilev, the shallowing of the Ural was first observed in the 1970s. This is when construction of hydroelectric power stations, and therefore of large reservoirs upstream, began. Today, there are 12 large reservoirs in the Ural basin in addition to the Iriklinsky, each of which has a volume of at least 10 million cubic metres.

“There’s a joint commission on transboundary rivers aiming to preserve the river, but how can we preserve it if we build reservoirs in [the Russian republic of] Bashkiria, the very place where the runoff forms?,” Chibilev says. “The Volga barely exists anymore, instead there’s a cascade of reservoirs. A third of the water in the upper Ural basin is now regulated by dams and reservoirs. For many years, the main advantage of the Ural over the rivers of the south of the European Plain (Don, Dnepr, Dniester, Volga) was the low number of water reservoirs and dams in the lower and middle reaches.”

Deepening the riverbed is one of the most often suggested projects to save the Ural. But scientists disagree with this idea and view it as a risky venture.

Serik Hairov, head of a scientific and technical laboratory studying water resources in the Ural-Caspian Basin, says: “The amount of water will not change no matter how deep we make the riverbed. At the same time, there is the problem of pollution– tree trunks creating congestion, algae and mud. In nature, in a natural environment, various processes are at work. For example, a natural spring flood would wash away fallen trees and erode sand islands and shallows. Having a large number of blue-green algae, which we, people, dislike seeing in our rivers, is actually a good way to purify water from industrial pollution.”

Think globally, act locally

Galidolla Azidullin, head of the Ural-Caspian Water Inspection, is also sceptical about artificially clearing the riverbed. In his opinion, it is unthinkably expensive and meaningless.

“In fact, it is the canals and tributaries that flow into the Ural River that need to be cleared,” Azidullin says. “We have inspected the Ural-Kushum Canal and what we have seen is very depressing because dams and reservoirs have virtually stopped the flow of water. As a result, the canal is overgrown with reeds and algae. The water doesn’t flow.“

“The same is happening to small rivers in the Ural Basin – the Barbastau, the Derkul, the Big Uzen and the Little Uzen. So half of these small rivers no longer bring water to the Ural. It’s no surprise that the Ural’s water level is going down,” he adds.

Alexander Chibilev thinks it wrong to attribute the shallowing of the Ural solely to the presence of water reservoirs. Data from many years of observation show that even before the construction of the reservoirs the river had high-water and low-water years. These periods are cyclical and closely related to climate change.

Another climate issue also affects the Ural River: the melting of the ice caps. According to several scientists, icebergs breaking off from polar glaciers can cool the warm ocean currents of the Atlantic Ocean, impacting the weather in Eurasia. Chibilev also draws attention to the fact that global climate change affects every river in central Eurasia.

Read more: Talas and its people: life by a Central Asian river affected by climate change

“It is necessary to recognise that the true causes and extent of climate change, despite a large amount of data and predictions, are poorly understood. One thing is for sure: these changes are particularly sensitive in the central regions of Eurasia, where the Ural River basin is located,” he says. “The Don, Kuban, Terek, Volga, and Ural suffer from low water. And in the Altai and farther east, including the Amur river basin, there are catastrophic floods. Climate change is not sufficiently studied, partly because most of the surface of our planet is occupied by the ocean, which isn’t studied as much as inhabited land”

The human factor

The changes happening to the Ural have attracted the attention of the public because they are visible to the naked eye. More than four million people live on the banks of the river, anywhere along its course from the spurs of the Ural Mountains in Bashkiria, to its mouth in a tree-like delta in the Caspian Sea in Kazakhstan. They not only see what is happening to the river but are themselves the main cause of these changes. They use the river and consume its water. In official documents the influence of people on the Ural is denoted by the words “water use” and “water consumption”.

There’s also industrial water use. Factories take water from the Ural and discharge polluted water back into it.

“Because of this, we must take into account low water availability in our management of natural resources, give up high water consumption and be prepared for critically low water periods in the future,” Alexander Chibilev says.

He notes that there were extremely low water periods in the 1920s and in 1954-1955. And that, in contrast, in 1942 and in 1957, the Ural River overflowed and its violent currents even tore down railway bridges.

Sturgeons

Until recently, the Ural River was considered the world’s main supplier of caviar and sturgeon. In the 1970s, caviar from the Ural accounted for 40% of all black (sturgeon) caviar on the market. But in the 1990s, scientists warned that the sturgeon population was 40 times lower than twenty years previously. Nowadays there are generally no sturgeons upstream of Atyrau, a city by the Caspian Sea in Kazakhstan.

In the 70s, Chibilev compiled an atlas of sturgeon spawning habitats in the Ural River. He admits it is now hopelessly outdated but suggests the return of sturgeon could become a measure of the river’s rehabilitation.

He explains: “The replenishing of the sturgeon stock is something like a milestone, perhaps a utopian goal. And the presence of sturgeon in the river is an indicator of its ecological state. If sturgeon appear in significant numbers in the river, it means that the river is ‘recovering’. Like, for example, in the Rhine, Europe’s most polluted river in the 1960s. The “Salmon 2000″ programme was launched and salmon reappeared, though numbers are not at all on a commercial scale yet.”

The academic suggests Russia and Kazakhstan take concrete steps to restore the Ural River now. “Both states spend huge amounts of money on the restoration of the Ural,” he says. “But a cursory review of what it is being spent on is enough to understand that this money won’t have an effect. We spend a lot on conferences, round tables, and forums, and very little on concrete action. In my opinion, state bodies should direct their efforts towards giving the Ural a special status.“

“The Ural River and its tributaries, which have unique fauna and flora, supply water, possess valuable recreational resources, and in the area from Uralsk to the Caspian Sea, in general, are almost the only source of life, need a special status of protected natural territory,” he adds. “At least some parts of the rivers: the upper reaches and their springs, gorges on mountain rivers and valley areas with abundant floodplain forests and lakes, places rare species live in or migrate to, where valuable fish species spawn, etc.“

Read more: Troubled waters: Turkmenistan’s environmental policy

“Some countries have enshrined the status of “protected river” into law, for example. In Soviet times, a section of the Ural going from the mouth of the Barbastau to the North Caspian Sea, was a “protected area”. In the 1980s, we planned for the extension of this status to the mouth of the Ilek River. The joint Russian-Kazakh commission should work on the special status of our river, otherwise what was it created for?,” he concludes.

Тhe project “Developing Journalism: Exposing Climate Change” aims to identify the challenges of progressive climate change through the development and strengthening of independent media in Central Asia under the mentorship of experts from Media Development Center in Kyrgyzstan, Anhor.uz in Uzbekistan, Asia Plus in Tajikistan and Vlast.kz in Kazakhstan. The project is implemented by n-ost (Germany) and MediaNet International Centre for Journalism (Kazakhstan) with the support of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

Lukpan Akhmedyarov and Raul Uporov

Translated from Russian by Valentine Baldassari

The post A disappearing river: the fate of the Ural appeared first on Novastan English.

LIFE BY THE RIVER. Three million people in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan live by the Talas River, where there is less and less water every year.

This article was originally published in Russian by the Kazakh media Vlast.kz as part of the “Developing Journalism: Exposing Climate Change” project.

The Talas is a transnational river: starting its life in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan, it vanishes in the sands of the Moıynqum Desert in Kazakhstan. Three million people live by the river, on either side of the border, and depend on it, especially for agriculture.

Want more Central Asia in your inbox? Subscribe to our newsletter here.

It’s impossible to miss how much the river has changed in recent years – there is less and less water. How will people’s lives change when the region becomes even hotter and the water level even lower? A group of journalists and environmentalists travelled hundreds of kilometres along the Talas to meet with the “people of the river” and find out how their lives are changing.

People of the road

Bayyzbek Sheraliev hails from the village of Konezavod in Kyrgyzstan’s Talas Region. He is 41 years old. His life is linked to the road: he clears snow and sprinkles anti-icing salt, mainly at the Otmok Pass, on the highway between the towns of Talas and Suusamyr.

“There are traffic jams in the Otmok Pass after every big snowfall, but before, when I started working, I noticed a much thicker snow cover,” Sheraliev says.

He also said there was less water in the rivers by the road each year. “It’s all climate change,” he explains.

The average annual temperature rose by 1.6 degrees Celsius in the past hundred years, significantly higher than the overall increase in the world, 0.6 degrees. At this rate, by 2100 the average temperature will have risen by 4.7 degrees in the best case scenario and by 6.1 degrees in the average case, according to Kyrgyzstan’s third national climate report.

Rising temperatures lead to glaciers melting and reduced river runoff. But Kyrgyzstan needs more and more water for drinking and for agriculture: its population is growing.

People of the land

Lack of water affects farmers most of all. Samat Osmonov is a dehkan farmer, a word used in Central Asia to describe small individual or family farms. His and his family’s livelihoods depend directly on irrigation. Like everyone else born in the area, he grew up by the river Talas.

“As far as I can remember, I always drank this water, used it to cook at home. We give it to the cattle, use it to water the vegetables. Nowadays my children help me carry water from the river in buckets or with a donkey. Here’s the problem: there’s less and less water in the river! My grandfather said that in his day there was so much water a horse could not walk through it, but now horses can cross without any problem,” the 40-year-old Osmonov explained.

“I also remember that when I was a child the ice on the river was so thick that fully loaded carts could cross without issue. Now the river still ices over but it’s so thin that you can’t even walk on it!”

Osmonov evokes a Kyrgyz saying: “When does man not suffer? When there is plenty of water. When everyone has enough of it!”

Scientists predict that in the coming decades, precipitation will increase in the mountains but that areas downhill could get more arid, leading to desert spreading and putting stress on ecosystems downstream.

The pull of the river

Vladimir Mazer has lived in Talas since 1965. He says that even when all his relatives emigrated to Germany, he could not imagine living outside of nature. Mazer calls himself “practically the last German” of the Talas Region.

He used to work as a hunter and now chairs the Talas Society of Hunters and Fishermen. Mazer met Vlast’s journalists by the source of the Kara-Koyun River, a tributary of the Urmaral River, which in turn flows into the Talas.

“There is not enough water in the river: it used to be that in the spring, at the beginning of summer, it wasn’t possible to cross the river at all, now people calmly walk across in galoshes! I also remember how on 22 November 2006, an UAZ car could not get up here because of the heavy snow. Today there’s barely any snow and the fish have become smaller. So I have not been fishing at all for two years: what’s the point of catching something so small?,” Vladimir Mazer says.

Climatologists say that in the next 25-50 years, the Talas and the Chuy, another river flowing from Kyrgyzstan to Kazakhstan, will be reduced to 25-45% of their current flow because of climate change.

Another example of the impact of climate change, according to Mazer, is the decrease in the population of wild animals.

“My “hunting life” began in this gorge in 1988. Back then, wild boars roamed freely, roe deer grazed freely. As for endangered species: you could see argali everywhere, I even saw myself how they weren’t afraid to go out on the road. But today, the argali has almost disappeared! And there are much fewer snow leopards,” he says.

“The average winter temperature used to be -22 to -25 degrees. Nowadays we get little snow. And if there’s no snow, there’s no food supply. Animals go where there is something to eat, “ Mazer explains. “If we’re talking about the human factor, then, believe me, the residents of the Talas region would rather cut up a ram for food than shoot argali! Those who raise a hand against them are poachers! This is also our reality. This year, poachers did raise their hand and shot two Himalayan brown bears.”

Mazer considers a complete ban on hunting to be the way out.

“If I had my way, I would set up a good protection system in the gorges and completely ban hunting for at least 10-15 years to help the animal world renew its population. While there are still ibexes. Sometimes we’ll get a bear, especially in the fall, when the rosehip is ripe.

Is it strange to hear a professional hunter talk about a hunting ban? But this is logical: if we do not protect the animals, there won’t be anything left to hunt! A professional would never kill endangered animals or young animals who can produce offspring. You go after what’s easy to go after. This is mainly old animals that will no longer reproduce. The hunter is not a forager, looking for food to fill the refrigerator, he has a professional passion,” he says.

Mazer also believes grazing should be regulated. “Shepherds will still bring cattle to graze, they have to: in the 90s, virtually no one grazed cattle here, but these days people live off what they raise. Every year there are more and more cattle and herds of horses gathering in the same gorge! On top of that, each shepherd has 5-6 dogs. Such a large number of animals on the same territory is called overgrazing and leads to the degradation of pastures and the loss of biodiversity,” he explains.

The hunter says that in Urmaral he recently detained four fishermen who had caught 103 trout: “Surely they’re not going to eat them! Clearly, they’re not just fishermen, they’re suppliers. Plain human greed is interfering with nature,” he asserts.

The entrepreneur

Mysa Zhanchikulov is 54 years old. Fifty of those years he spent in the city of Talas. He has fished in the river’s largest tributary, the Urmaral, since childhood.

Now Zhanchikulov is getting closer to fulfilling a long-held dream: he has rented ponds that were abandoned since 1974 for ten years, cleaned them and released fish. He dreams of reducing poaching, giving people jobs and setting up an area for recreation and amateur fishing.

“This will help preserve biodiversity in this area, preserve the environment. I want us all to learn to appreciate our land, where we were born and grew up,” he says.

Together with entrepreneurs from a neighbouring village, he brought drinking water to the area which, after use and recycling, is suitable for irrigation. He has now started cleaning up the surrounding area. To this end, he bought ducks and released them into the overgrown reeds around the ponds. He grows corn to feed the ducks.

Mysa wants Kyrgyzstan to eat more fish. This would mean breeding fewer animals for slaughter and thus help preserve their food base.

The young fisher

The older generation is not alone in noticing there is less and less water in the Talas. Young people see it too. Marat uulu Bayrak went to the Talas River to fish with his father, an enthusiastic fisher, from an early age.

“The river was very large, there was a lot of water. My father would often catch 40 kilograms of fish. These days, I sit for a long time, there is fish, but not very much and it is all small. Poachers catch everything with nets and the fish do not have time to grow,” the teenager says.

Now Marat fishes in the Kirov reservoir, on the border with Kazakhstan. Its main purpose is to irrigate the agricultural lands of the Talas Valley and Kazakhstan but many people use it as a place for recreation and fishing.

“Our neighbours also use this water,” the teenager says, pointing to the nearest slopes: “Look, you can see how the water level has dropped! It never used to sink lower than those trees on the slopes. There’s not enough water, we’ll have to feel it for ourselves soon.”

The healers

Saken Jumakeyeva, from the village of Boo-Terek, is 86 years old. She says that the Talas River gave her and her husband longevity and health.

They regularly pray to Allah and thank him for the fact that their native Kyrgyzstan has so many natural springs. “If the source is pure, then the spring is clean. If the thoughts are pure, then the deeds are nobles”

In Kyrgyzstan, there are hundreds of sources one can drink from or collect water from to bring home.

The Kyrgyz have long worshipped the Talas River and the sacred springs along its banks. They built mazar, or mausoleums, in the vicinity. The folk healer Erkinbubu Chomoeva talked about the Kanykeybulak mazar, a mausoleum near the Kenkol River, an affluent of the Talas.

“Sitting by a spring and not drinking water – that doesn’t happen,” Chomoeva says. She gives a long list of diseases that water from different springs supposedly cures.

“The area used to be abandoned but activists came, cleaned everything and improved it. Nature and springs should be treated with kindness and love, protected and preserved. By protecting our water springs, we are protecting our country. It teaches us to be kind and responsive, to love and care for the world around us,” she added.

Parents and children

Elnur Kainazarova comes from the village of Kopuro-Bazar. She is an engineer by education, now a mother and housewife. She says children should be taught to appreciate water from an early age: do not pollute it and spend it sparingly. This is what her parents and grandparents taught her.

“A love of water and an awareness of its preciousness has been passed down from generation to generation. Socially, not being careful with water is a very tense subject” says Elnur. She is convinced that extractive projects should only use advanced technologies that do not harm the environment.

Kopuro-Bazar is considered a prosperous village. Many here work in animal husbandry and agriculture to export to Kazakhstan. There is also the gold industry, with extraction and exploitation happening nearby, as in many villages built by affluents of the Talas.

The “river of gold”

The ecologist Gamal Soronkulov calls the Talas a “river of gold”. Right at its sources there are gold deposits: Jeeroy on the Uch-Koshoy River, Andash and Aktash on the right bank of the Karakol River. Downstream, almost at the mouth of the Talas’s tributaries, there are ore and scattered gold deposits.

Soronkulov, a native of the region, has a lot to say about the river. He grew up on its banks. “In the floodplain there is a beautiful forest – how rich Kyrgyzstan is! I remember that near the Kirov State Reserve there are flocks of gulls, cormorants, and herons that stay here for the winter. It’s beautiful,” he said.

The Talas, whose main water source is snow melt, flows for 661 kilometres until vanishing in the Moıynqum Desert. On the plain, its waters are used for irrigation and have been a subject of interest for both Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.

“This is a river of neighbourliness, it is very important that it does not become a river of discord because of disputes over water!,” Soronkulov warns. “The Talas has been flowing for thousands of years, providing food and water. We have to keep the water clean and avoid quarrels with our Kazakh brothers”

Gamal Soronkulov has made it his personal mission and a matter of personal honour to prevent the exploitation of valuable mineral deposits. “It would lead to the destruction of the whole ecosystem of the river and the Talas valley: this means a change to the riverbed, the degradation of pastures, the destruction of flora and fauna in the region,” he says. “And all that for what? For the sake of the small amount of gold specified in the license. It’s unacceptable!”

The ecologist gives an example: “The license for the Urmaral deposit indicates that it contains 11 kg of gold. More than 600 hectares of beautiful floodplain forests is given away with it! If this plot were purchased at auction for $7,000, then one hectare of clean river, forest and pasture is ‘worth’ less than $10.”

Soronkulov is not against exploiting natural riches, but only if it complies with all environmental and sanitary standards and the profits are redistributed fairly. No one disputes the fact nature is a great natural capital. But with one condition: that it is used rationally, and not barbarically destroyed.

The Talas River Basin is home to about three million people in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.

In 2000, the two countries signed an agreement on the water management of the river. With this document, Kazakhstan commits to paying Kyrgyzstan for part of the maintenance and repair of the canals, dams and reservoirs that ensure the supply of water to both even though they are owned by the Kyrgyz Republic. The agreement does not specify how the water should be divided so both sides adhere to the principles of equal distribution adopted in Soviet times.

Read more: Troubled waters: Turkmenistan’s environmental policy

Kazakhstan periodically complains that it does not receive the agreed-upon volume of water. However, Kyrgyzstan itself suffers from water scarcity.

The Chu-Talas Water Management Commission is a unique example of joint operation of hydraulic structures, joint solution-finding to problems of water allocation, and joint financing of such processes, which is in proportion to the share of water that each country receives. It is also a unique example of international cooperation on climate change in a transnational river basin.

However, the reduction of water due to accelerating climate change and human activity is a cause for concern for the two republics. Tensions can increase as the water levels decrease. Will the countries have time to make a difference?

Тhe project “Developing Journalism: Exposing Climate Change” aims to identify the challenges of progressive climate change through the development and strengthening of independent media in Central Asia under the mentorship of experts from Media Development Center in Kyrgyzstan, Anhor.uz in Uzbekistan, Asia Plus in Tajikistan and Vlast.kz in Kazakhstan. The project is implemented by n-ost (Germany) and MediaNet International Centre for Journalism (Kazakhstan) with the support of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

Vlad Ushakov and Irina Bayramukova

Translated from Russian by Valentine Baldassari

For more news and analysis from Central Asia, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Telegram, Linkedin or Instagram.

The post Talas and its people: life by a Central Asian river affected by climate change appeared first on Novastan English.

Out in the foothills near Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, one can observe a dark cloud hanging over the city throughout the year. ЛИВЕНЬ Living Asia looked into how polluted the city’s air is and why.

This article first appeared in Russian on ЛИВЕНЬ. Living Asia on 17 December 2016.

Kyrgyzstan’s State Agency for Hydrometeorology (Kyrgyzgidromet) conducts measurements of dangerous compounds in the atmosphere and publishes reports every month. In November 2016, the concentration of nitrogen dioxide in the air in the capital, Bishkek, exceeded the norm by 50%, in the city center by 100%. This compound is highly toxic. It can affect the respiratory system and the lungs and decrease hemoglobin in the blood.

However, it is not nitrogen dioxide but formaldehyde that most of all exceeds the permissible norms. A carcinogen, it can cause malignant tumors. According to Kyrgyzgidromet, in November 2016, the concentration of this substance in the air was five times over the threshold limit value. In October the same year, these indicators were worse: six times over the sanitary requirements.

Want more Central Asia in your inbox? Subscribe to our newsletter here.

Kyrgyzgidromet’s measurements do not provide a complete picture of the air quality in Bishkek. For instance, the Agency does not conduct measurements of benzopyrene in the atmosphere. The state does not have money for the required equipment and supplies to carry out such research. The latest measurements, taken in 2000, nevertheless showed that the concentration of benzopyrene in the atmosphere exceeded the required limits by 25-35 times and by 48 times during the heating season. Benzopyrene is a toxic chemical compound that can cause malignant tumors in humans and animals.

Poor ventilation

The ecologist Emil Shukurov describes the state of the air in Bishkek as “disgusting”. He connects it with the huge number of cars and the heating season, when soot and harmful gases pollute the atmosphere.

“Air pollution causes respiratory diseases. Our city is leading in their number in the republic. Bishkek is also the country’s leader in cancer. This is a serious situation,” Shukurov said.

Shukurov attributes the poor air quality in Kyrgyzstan’s capital to its bad ventilation. Firstly, there is a “cap” over the city as the average temperature in Bishkek is five degrees Celsius higher than in the surrounding area. It prevents fresh air from entering the city. Secondly, there is a problem with the city’s architectural planning.

The territory on which Bishkek was built is poorly and sporadically ventilated. When architects started building the city in the 19^th century, they took this point into account and suggested using principles of urban planning inspired by Ancient Rome. According to these principles, the streets of a city were located in the direction of the prevailing winds. This ensured good ventilation with mountain air.

Read more: Kyrgyzstan struggling to meet electricity demand this winter

“Streets of a city are its windows and they should be open. In Soviet times, especially in the second half of the last century, this system was destroyed … It is both a crime and idiocy,” Shukurov explained.

Shukurov said that the principles of city planning during the Soviet period were formed in Moscow, in the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Architecture and Urban Planning. All projects there were mainly designed for Central Russia where wind barriers were important for city construction.

As a result, all standard neighborhoods built on the south side of Bishkek have created a shield to mountain winds, thereby blocking their entry to the city.

The ecologist added: “The winds from the mountains are light; therefore, there should not be any barriers. While earlier the mountain air was going into the city through streets, now in Bishkek there isn’t a single street it can pass through.”

A two-fold increase in emissions

According to Kyrgyzstan’s National Statistical Committee, from 2010 to 2014 the number of harmful substances emitted into the air from stationary sources has doubled. Whereas in 2010 the country emitted around 30,000 tonnes of air pollutants, by 2014 the figure had increased to over 60,000 tonnes. In 2015 this number rose even more. About half of these emissions are concentrated in Bishkek.

According to the World Health Organization, the level of air contamination has a direct impact on the amount of chronic and acute respiratory diseases and respiratory cancers.

Living Asia compared data on the level of air pollution in Bishkek with the number of respiratory diseases and cancers. This comparison cannot be proof of emissions’ effect on health. However, it shows that in a year when the number of harmful emissions increased, the number of diseases has gone up, too. According to the data for 2010-2014, the number of people suffering from respiratory diseases rose by 8.5% and the number of people with malignant tumors in the respiratory system by over 20%.

Dmitry Motinov
ЛИВЕНЬ. Living Asia

Translated from Russian by Aigeldi Eminova

For more news and analysis from Central Asia, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Telegram, Linkedin or Instagram.

The post Kyrgyzstan: why Bishkek’s air quality is so poor appeared first on Novastan English.

Turkmenistan celebrates 30 years of independence in 2021. But what does its past and current environmental policy look like, and what does it reveal about the country?

In an article published on the Turkmen news site Orient.tm on 16 February 2021, the journalist Gozel Sahatova praised Turkmenistan’s recognition of the world’s fight against global warming. She reported that, to mark the occasion, 30 million seedlings will be planted across the country during the year. According to the article, this contribution to the wellbeing of Turkmenistan and its inhabitants and indeed the wider world comes alongside many other contributions.

The modernisation of key sectors of the economy (oil and gas, agriculture, industrial) is mentioned, as is the meeting of international environmental safety standards. An emphasis is also placed on the introduction of water- and energy-saving technologies and the value of the Turkmen experience for international practice.

The article also points towards Turkmen ratification of international agreements on climate change: the 1991 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Kyoto Protocol and the 2015 Paris Agreement. The Central Asian state also included new goals related to the Paris Agreement in its 2019 National Strategy. Finally, the author highlights Turkmen initiatives on the environment, such as a multilateral cooperation mechanism in the Caspian Sea. 

Precise data on Turkmenistan can be difficult to acquire and analyse due to its being closed off to significant international relations with foreign countries under a policy of neutrality. With that in mind, it’s worth asking whether the country’s environmental record is as clean as it seems.

A question of prestige

Independent Turkmenistan has had various environmental issues that weaken Orient.tm’s claims. The introduction of water-saving technologies, for example, seems overshadowed by the failure of the huge Golden Age Lake project, a plan for a 800-kilometre network of canals across the desert to bring water into the Karashor depression. 

This project was conceived under the former president Saparmyrat Nyýazow and continued under his successor Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, in spite of expert warnings of the difficulty of accumulating water due to evaporation in an arid region. 

Yet the Golden Age Lake fitted into the wider idea of a Turkmen Golden Age. At the completion of the first stage of the project in 2009, Berdimuhamedow proclaimed that the “most daring plans are made a reality”. The completion of the first stage of the project was thus a “truly historic event”. However, evaporation issues were compounded by poor construction and a lack of consideration of meteorological factors such as wind drift affecting the canal course, causing, according to one Turkmen expert, a ticking time bomb for the country’s already troubled environmental situation.

In this light, the project may seem more questionable. In an interview with Novastan, Filippo Menga, an associate professor in geography at the University of Bergamo whose research focuses on water politics, points out the discrepancy between “the government’s triumphant narrative and the concerns raised by the scientific and international community”. However, he explained, the contradictions are understandable: “The aim seems to be the end in itself – with the end being launching a self-referential project that fits with and reinforces the Altyn Asyr, or Golden Age, rhetoric.”

Rather than strictly being about water, then, it is more a question of “projecting domestic power and reinforcing the image of Berdimuhamedow as a visionary and benevolent leader who goes to great lengths to improve living conditions in Turkmenistan,” Menga said. More recently, the project “seems to have gone off the radar in the political agenda of the government” due to the “apparent insuccess of the venture”. Indeed, as of 2021, the Karashor depression is almost empty.

Beyond the Golden Age Lake

At a 19 February 2021 conference on the state of agriculture in the country, Berdimuhamedow suggested the cleaning and dredging of Turkmen rivers and the maintenance of dams to ensure water supply for irrigation. International organisations have also recognised the importance of environmental action in Turkmenistan: USAID, for instance, has recently financed the dredging of the Murgab river for around $170,000 (approximately £120,000).

In addition to the Golden Age Lake project, the Turkmen activist Farid Tukhbatullin has highlighted wider problems of water governance in the country in an article for The Third Pole, an online magazine dedicated to the issue of water in Asia. Tukhbatullin mentions the lack of a uniform post-independence strategy, water-intensive cotton and wheat crops, and the expansion of irrigation. This is intensified by soil salinisation caused by poor maintenance of water collection systems, leaving a snow-looking layer of salt which greatly reduces crop yield in Turkmenistan and even in neighbouring Uzbekistan. 

Read more: The Aral Sea artemia: small shrimp, high stakes

In his article, Tukhbatullin also mentions that localised actions, though helpful and well-intentioned, address symptoms rather than root causes, and thus cannot be a major driver of change. Menga similarly states that what is more necessary is a “coordinated regional action driven by a strong and genuine political will to cooperate.”

And indeed, the knock-on effects of Turkmenistan’s lack of water collection system maintenance for Uzbekistan show the interconnectedness of the region. As Menga told Novastan: “Central Asia, as a region, stands out as one marked by inextricable interconnections and interdependencies, and low or limited cooperation on regional issues is not beneficial to anyone, and in particular the peoples of Central Asia, who will be most severely affected by environmental degradation and unequal distribution of resources.” 

“Lack of maintenance of shared regional infrastructure has been an issue in Central Asia since the 1990s, and the lack of a coordinated approach and long-term agreement to deal with this issue is likely to trigger tensions and conflicts in the future,” he added. 

Gas and oil

Furthermore, Turkmenistan is a country rich in oil and natural gas, and with the recent signing of a memorandum of understanding with Azerbaijan, may soon have the possibility to export to Europe and reduce its dependency on China and Russia, especially in the global post-corona virus economic resurgence which will see increased production, according to a 2021 IEA report on methane emissions. The country is dependent on hydrocarbon revenue, and the steep decline in price from 2014 has intensified food shortages.

Read more: Agreement between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan paves the way for Trans-Caspian Pipeline

The country aims to stabilise or reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, though a 19% increase is expected. These targets may be complicated by multiple significant methane leaks detected since 2019. The latest, in February 2021, amounted to an equivalent of 10 tons of methane per hour being released for multiple hours into the atmosphere. This was equivalent to the emissions of 250,000 cars. The French energy data analytics firm Kayrros suggested the leak was the result of budget cuts related to a slow-down in the hydrocarbon industry due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The rise of Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow’s son Serdar to the post of deputy prime minister for digitisation and innovative technologies is a signal of a future transfer of power from father to son. Though it is difficult to speculate on what his environmental and political stance may be, existing issues and a lack of comprehensive solutions mean that if he comes to power, Serdar Berdimuhamedow will inherit a fragile environment that will echo the predicament of the entire region.

Cameron Evans
Novastan.org

The post Troubled waters: Turkmenistan’s environmental policy appeared first on Novastan English.

Living Asia’s journalists took a trip to the North Aral Sea, in Kazakhstan, where they witnessed the opening of a fish breeding plant, a hatchery. There, they saw the full process of transformation of eggs into young fish and their journey to the delta lake. In addition, they learnt how fishery professionals are trained in this region and explored how these projects help replenish the lake’s fish stocks.

This article first appeared in Russian on ЛИВЕНЬ. Living Asia on 11 November 2020.

As it dried up in the second half of the 20th century, the Aral Sea split into two bodies of water, the North Aral and South Aral, also known as Small and Large Aral. While the larger South Aral has itself become several lakes, efforts to revive the northern part have met with some success: water levels have risen and salinity has dropped, leading to the return of fish.

In a previous article, Living Asia discussed the death of fish during spring spawning season when water is discharged from Small Aral to Large Aral and about the annual decline of fish stocks in the Aral Sea. Unfortunately, with current intensive fishing, no-one is involved in replenishing them. This depletes fish stocks. Not only in the Aral Sea are fish stocks rapidly disappearing: they also are endangered in the other lakes of the delta of the Syr Darya River.

Want more Central Asia in your inbox? Subscribe to our newsletter here.

For many years this region was the main supplier of fish for the entire former Soviet Union. In recent years, however, intensive fishing and poaching have caused immense damage to the ecosystem.

Ainakul Baimakhanova, coordinator of a group of projects for sustainable fishery in the Aral Sea region, said: “For locals, the fish living in these reservoirs is the most accessible foodstuff. More than one generation of fishermen grew up here. People are used to feeding their families this way. But the locals don’t think that the fish might tomorrow simply run out! Unsystematic, uncoordinated fishing counts as poaching, but the people living around the lake practice it anyway.”

The reduction of fish stocks already negatively impacts all the delta ecosystems. After all, lakes in that region of Kazakhstan like Akkol, Mariamkol, Kuan Darya and others are a part of the wetlands. Furthermore, they are within the borders of key ornithological areas. Fortunately, it is possible to regenerate the unique delta ecosystem of the region. It is already being done by re-stocking the fish population.

Opening a hatchery

To date, aquaculture has almost completely disappeared from the Aral District. Breeding fish is barely practiced by the local population and there are practically no hatcheries in the area. To repopulate the lake, juvenile fish up to a year old are brought in from the neighbouring district, which is 180-190 km away. This raises the costs of fish production and causes high losses during transportation. The fry (very young fish) simply do not survive on the road.

The capacity of existing fish farms in this region simply is not enough. To replenish lake stocks faster and more sustainably, there is the idea of setting up mid-sized hatcheries in the field.

Thus, in early 2020, the local public association “Kazaly Oasis” established a commercial hatchery and fish farm in the village of Aqshataý in the Aral District. This was possible thanks to the support of the fishing processing business Igilikov, the producer’s cooperative Jambyl and the United Nations’ GEF Small Grants Programme in Kazakhstan.

Through the project, local people, most coming from a long line of former fishermen, were educated in fishery. The celebratory opening of the fish hatchery in late June 2020 was attended by the head of the local district government (or akim), various other officials and Living Asia’s team.

Mukhtar Orazbaev, akim of the Aral District, says: “This is a very essential project for our region. We will be able to take young fish from the hatchery to release them into the Aral Sea and the neighbouring Kazalinsky District. If the hatchery works year-round, the fish stock in the lakes and sea will significantly improve. You are doing a great job, I wish you success!”

How the hatchery works

The fish breeding plant is located in a fairly large space of 16 by 30 metres. This is where the closed water supply units purchased by the project are located.

All parameters of the technological process (water conditioning, feeding, checks and more) are monitored and managed with the help of programmable automated devices. This minimises the influence of natural factors on the technological process.

The hatchery also breeds female fish which were rescued from the Aral Sea. The eggs are first stored in flasks before they are transferred to pools. Fish farmers and fishery specialists carefully observe all the processes in order to raise as much fry (very young fish) as possible.

The fry and fingerlings (juvenile fish in various stages of development) are distributed among twelve lake fish farms. They are put in special bags and transported by car to different areas of the water reservoir.

Ainakul Baimakhanova says: “All the locals are interested in the success of this project because the lake, water and fish are their life. In our district everyone is interested in working with us. People want to develop their businesses, they want to create new job opportunities in the towns and villages. Thanks to the changes, the population’s social situation improves every year.”

Education centre for fish specialists

Due to the growing demand for fish, small local fish-processing workshops have emerged in the Aral Sea region. This has increased the need for specialists with a certain level of professional skills. Modern fish-processing plants have to handle different types of fish and prepare them for export according to EU regulations.

Moreover, the region is lacking qualified fish farmers who could support local fishermen to competently collect fish from reservoirs and restock them.

To solve these problems, in 2019 an education centre for sustainable fishery technology and the protection of fish resources was established on the premises of the NGO Khana Aral Tolkyny. For a year, the centre has been training fishery experts.

A new cohort of specialists started training in February 2020. Classes were held in the centre and on location in the villages while practical training took place in fisheries.

Fish farmers were taught the particularities of different types of fish, breeding methods, artificial reproduction, technology for larvae germination, feeding, selection basics for fish breeding and the organisation of production processes for pond farming.

Fish processors learned to sort their catch and studied processing equipment and production technologies for salted, pickled and spicy products, canned fish and seafood.

Read more: The Aral Sea artemia: small shrimp, high stakes

The opening of the education centre is very important for the region. Thanks to it, unemployed women and young people finally found an outlet for their strengths and abilities. New specialists are already finding employment in fisheries and fish processing facilities.

Ainakul Baimakhanova says: “We planned to graduate 40 fish farmers, but in the end we trained 52. We graduated a bit more than 200 fish processors, just like we planned. But aside from farmers and processing professionals, we still need highly specialised experts. The issue of their training has not been resolved yet.

Now we are making arrangements with the Employment Centre, which helps to find jobs for the unemployed, trains hairdressers and so on. The Employment Centre could include fish farming and processing in the professions they teach. Our graduates have gained qualitative knowledge, which is why business owners are happy to take them in. Can you imagine how many more people could still find work?

I am grateful to the Small Grants Programme for supporting our ideas. We really need these projects for the revitalisation of our region.

We think of the future. We want to preserve biodiversity and nature’s beauty for future generations. So that there will be many types of fish in the water reservoirs, so that flowers grow on the waterside, so that things change for the better. So that people have good living conditions, happy children and a comfortable home.”

Oksana Tarnetskaya
ЛИВЕНЬ. Living Asia

Translated from Russian by Nora Heinonen

For more news and analysis from Central Asia, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Telegram, Linkedin or Instagram.

The post Kazakhstan: replenishing the Aral Sea’s fish stocks appeared first on Novastan English.

The artemia, or brine shrimp, a small crustacean that lives in salt water, has become the main product of the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan. The Uzbek government has recently centralised artemia production into a single company, a plan which did not seem to please everyone on the ground.

This article was originally published on Novastan’s French website on 21 July 2020.

The Aral Sea was the fourth largest lake in the world 60 years ago. Today, it has almost completely been dried out due to human activities, causing the disappearance of millions of fish and reducing the number of species by five. However, despite this environmental disaster, one species has survived: the artemia. With the sea now dried up, local fishermen have turned to this saltwater shellfish to generate the majority of their income. The fishermen of Moynaq, in western Uzbekistan, have thus started collecting and processing these shrimps due to the shortage of fish.

Want more Central Asia in your inbox? Subscribe to our newsletter here.

The shrinking of the Aral Sea has increased the salinity of the water which explains the growing numbers of artemia, which thrive in very salty water. The 1 millimetre-long crustacean is generally used to feed fish but also has uses in science, fishkeeping, medicine, pharmacy and cosmetics. The larvae (known as cysts) can be stored for years and can withstand extreme differences in temperature.

Towards a monopoly

But the future of the artemia industry has been a source of controversy since since 2019. On 31 October 2019, the Uzbek government proposed that the 23 or so companies involved in the artemia industry be centralised into just one.

Despite the Antimonopoly Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan’s protests and the recommendations against the project it published on 15 June 2020, Uzbekistan’s prime minister Abdulla Aripov signed a decree on 14 July of the same year creating a state-owned company responsible for the capture, processing and export of artemia cysts. The new structure, Orol Artemia Sanoat, is also meant to support the scientific, technical and technological development of the industry.

The Antimonopoly Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan deemed this centralization ill-advised, an opinion it supports through a text recommending the Uzbek government be less involved in the economy. This point of view is in line with the political philosophy of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, who says he wants to privatise the domestic economy by limiting state intervention.

Lack of data

It is difficult to measure the impact such a decision has had and will continue to have on the market. In 2020, Novastan attempted to obtain information locally but very few people were willing to talk about it. In fact, the lack of transparency and the strained context surrounding the negotiations over the last few weeks meant the fishermen of Muynaq did not wish to comment.

Only the press office of the Antimonopoly Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan agreed to answer Novastan’s questions, stressing the importance artemia represents for the country. The head of its press service, Manzura Khasanova, said that data regarding the selling price and volume of export of artemia and industry wages did not exist. As for the land and sea portions where artemia is collected, they are under the supervision of the State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan for Geology and Mineral Resources.

Although instinctively artemia collection doesn’t seem to be a very sensitive industry, it remains opaque and very closed off in Uzbekistan. The only available data come from the international trade association Global Aquaculture Alliance, which ranked Uzbekistan among the world’s leading suppliers of artemia in 2017, with over 20 tons produced per year.

From the Uzbek side, little information is available to the public. Muynaq-based producers created an association in 2018 to lobby for transparency as well as promote export, but without providing much more detail so far.

The fishermen of Muynaq have been gathering, processing and selling artemia larvae since the early 2000s, when the world’s demand totalled 2,000 tons per year, according to scientific research. A small shellfish, then, but a major economic lifeline for the fishermen of Muynaq.

Malaurie Le Bail
Novastan.org

Translated from French by Manon Montant

Edited by Alice Coveney

For more news and analysis from Central Asia, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Telegram, Linkedin or Instagram.

The post The Aral Sea artemia: small shrimp, high stakes appeared first on Novastan English.

The Uzbek government, in cooperation with international consultancies, has published a sustainability report for the first time. The document, written in English, assesses the country’s progress in several key areas.

This article was originally published on Novastan’s German website on 6 February 2021.

The Uzbek government has published a report outlining the country’s progress in managing environmental and social governance (ESG) for the first time. As the platform Accesswire reports, the document, published on 1st February 2021, aims to make Uzbekistan’s progress within the framework of the United Nations’ sustainable development goals visible to national and international stakeholders. The move is part of the reform programme initiated by the Uzbek president, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, since 2017.

Want more Central Asia in your inbox? Subscribe to our newsletter here.

While ESG reports are common practice in the corporate world, Uzbekistan is the first country to publish one. The document reflects the significant changes in Uzbekistan’s policies towards good governance, sustainability and a strengthened civil society since 2017.

A reference framework for investors

The report was commissioned by the Uzbek Export Promotion Agency under the Ministry of Investments and Foreign Trade. It was produced in cooperation with two international consulting firms, the German cometis AG and the US-based Xenophon Strategies. It is also publicly available on a website created by the Uzbek Ministry of Foreign Trade and Investment under the title “Journey of Change”.

“The sovereign ESG report provides a snapshot in time using verifiable data and statistics from across the government as well as from third-party observers. We are proud of the successes that can be seen here, and we are committed to continue improving across all measures for the future,” commented Sardor Umurzakov, the deputy prime minister and minister of investments and foreign trade.

Read more: Central Asia in 2020: the year in review

The document acts as a reference for national and international investors as well as global companies looking for partners in Central Asia. Published in English, it is based on international reporting standards, namely the UN’s 20 30 Sustainability Agenda and the World Bank’s Sovereign ESG Data Framework.

Progress in infrastructure development, governance and sustainable livelihoods

The business news media bne IntelliNews sees the report as a reflection of Uzbekistan’s transformation towards an open society. Since 2017, the country is slowly moving up in independent world rankings and indexes reflecting good governance, civil liberty, economic activity and development. It nevertheless still ranks low in Freedom House’s Freedom in the World report, which points out improvements but “little movement towards democratisation”.

Most notably, the new ESG report tracks key changes in social and governance issues, including forced labour, enforcement of civil rights, human rights, transparency, and electoral and judicial reforms. It includes third-party assessments in a bid for objectivity.

Read more: Uzbekistan’s energy sector struggling as temperatures dip

The report specifically outlines steps taken to end the decades-long use of forced labour and child labour in cotton fields that had sparked the boycott of Uzbek cotton by international companies. This could prove crucial to reposition Uzbekistan as a reliable cotton supplier as this crop contributes substantially to the country’s economy.

New infrastructure as well as more attractive economic conditions have also increased business activity in Uzbekistan, including a sharp rise in foreign direct investment. Cooperation with leading international organisations has led to greater transparency and better compliance with existing laws, and new laws have been adopted in accordance with recognised legal standards.

However, four years into Mirziyoyev’s presidency, the country’s remains an authoritarian state. As Human Rights Watch points out in its latest report on Uzbekistan, many reform promises continue to be unfulfilled. Forced labour has yet to be fully eradicated and the persecution of journalists and activists continues, with for example the anti-corruption blogger Otabek Sattoriy jailed in January on extortion charges.

Darius Regenhardt
Novastan.org

For more news and analysis from Central Asia, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Telegram, Linkedin or Instagram.

The post Uzbekistan publishes first sovereign ESG report appeared first on Novastan English.