KAZAKHSTAN ENVIRONMENT UPDATE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ALMATY 004350

SIPDIS

TASHKENT FOR EPUTNAM

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ECON SENV ENRG EPET KZ
SUBJECT: KAZAKHSTAN ENVIRONMENT UPDATE
December 2, 2005



1. Summary: This information is drawn primarily from the
Kazakhstani press, and has not been verified. The opinions
expressed in this report, therefore, should not be
interpreted by readers as conveying positions and/or policy
of the U.S. Government.

-- Local Prosecutor Calls Tengizchevroil Negligent
-- Baby Sturgeons Released into the Aral Sea
-- Construction Begins on Toxic Waste Landfill
-- Forest Fire in Ile-Alatau National Park
-- Shungite Could Reduce Environmental Problems
-- Shardara HES Director Says Riverside Villages Should Be Removed
-- Parliament Ratifies Teheran Environmental Convention
-- Program to Provide Drinking Water in Pavlodar Oblast Continues
-- Second Phase of "SOS-Saiga" Project Began in Early November
-- National Strategy on Avian Flu to be Ready by Year's End
-- Kazakhstani Scientists Decipher Genome of H5N1 Virus
-- Senate Adopts Law on Ecological Insurance


Local Prosecutor Calls Tengizchevroil Negligent
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2. (U) Atyrau Oblast Prosecutor Batyr Zhazbayev alleged to the
press that Tengizchevroil does not have good control over
its operations. According to Zhabayev, after a July 2
accident which resulted in the emission of 700 tons of
pollutants, four more accidents occurred over four months.
On the day of the accident, four employees of
"Tengizchevroil" complained of acute toxic exposure to
hydrogen sulfide and 183 people filed complaints to a local
clinic. The damage was estimated at 17 million Tenge. The
Environmental Prosecutor's office has charged two foreign
officials at the company for being responsible for the
accident and took the case to court. (Vremya, November 7,
2005)

Baby Sturgeons Released into the Aral Sea
--------------


3. (U) 30,000 baby sturgeons were released into the Maly Aral, the
northern part of the Aral Sea, marking the beginning of a
fish cluster in the region. The release became possible
with the completion of the Kok-Aral dam, which has raised
water levels in the Maly Aral. Two fish farms have been
restored and 100,000 baby sturgeons were delivered from
Atyrau. The remaining sturgeons will be released next
spring. Specialists do not anticipate any problems with the
release. (Kazakhstanskaya Pravda, November 2, 2005)

Construction Begins on Toxic Waste Landfill
--------------


4. (U) Western Kazakhstan Oblast began constructing a landfill for
hazard class 1, 2, and 3 toxic wastes. The Oblast allocated
52 million Tenge from the 2005 budget for the project. The
total area of the landfill is 18 hectares. Currently there
is no toxic waste landfill in Western Kazakhstan Oblast and
large enterprises are obliged to store toxic waste in big
containers on their property. The absence of a landfill
increases the risk of environmental pollution. (Kazakhstan
Today, November 10, 2005)

Forest Fire in Ile-Alatau National Park
--------------


5. (U) A forest fire in the Bolshoy Almatinka gorge lasted for two
days. Negligent tourists started the fire, which took more
than 100 firefighters and 2 helicopters to extinguish. The
fire quickly spread after it burned acres of Tien Shan
spruce, which contains flammable oils. It will take 30 to
50 years to restore the forest. (Habar, November 7, 2005)

Shungite Could Reduce Environmental Problems
--------------


6. (U) Kazakhstani scientists are hopeful that shungite, a mineral
found in Karelia, Russia, will solve environmental problems
in Kazakhstan. Experiments have shown that shungite can
decontaminate the soil, reduce radioactive and oil
contamination, decompose heptyl and oil products into
ecologically safe compounds, neutralize mercury vapor.
(Kazakhstanskaya Pravda, November 15, 2005)

Shardara HES Director Says Riverside Villages Should Be Removed
-------------- --------------


7. (U) According to Kudaibergen Erzhan, director of the Shardara
HES, families should be resettled away from areas prone to
flooding along the Syr Darya River. According to Erzhan,
the local authorities are wasting time and draining the
national budget in their efforts to prevent flooding by
patching up holes in dams. In recent years the overflowing
Syr Darya has flooded small riverside settlements and caused
many problems. On November 14, Kazinform reported that the
Aral-Syrdarya Water Basin Administration did not expect
floods this winter because the oblast had carried out
riverbank protection works at the most vulnerable places in
the summer. (Press release of "Kazgidromet" RSE, MEP of the
RK, November 25, 2005; Kazinform, November 14, 2005)

Parliament Ratifies Teheran Environmental Convention
-------------- --------------


8. (U) The Upper House approved a bill to ratify the Framework
Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of
the Caspian Sea, Interfax reported. The bill has been
submitted to the President for signing. The Lower House
passed the bill in September. The Convention was signed
in Teheran by Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Russia, and
Turkmenistan on November 4, 2003. Among the
guiding principles of the Convention is the "polluter
pays" principle, which implies that the polluter bears the
cost of pollution including its prevention, control, and
reduction. (Interfax, November 23, 2005)

Program to Provide Drinking Water in Pavlodar Oblast Continues
-------------- --------------


9. (U) Implementation of the "Drinking Water" program Pavlodar
Oblast is moving ahead, according to Kazinform. In 2005,
seven water mains were reconstructed in 5 districts. The
water supply in 117 settlements will be improved through
2007 under the program. From 2001 to 2004, the water supply
in 94 villages was improved, water mains in 33 settlements
were reconstructed, and 61 water cleaning facilities were
built. The central government and oblast budget allocated
1.2 billion Tenge to cover these improvements. (Kazinform,
November 26, 2005)

Second Phase of "SOS-Saiga" Project Began in Early November
-------------- --------------


10. (U) The Seimar Social Fund provided Ohotzzoprom 10 cars and
communication equipment to patrol, monitor, and assess the
saiga population in Zhezkazgan, Kzylorda, and Almaty
Oblasts. The "SOS-Saiga" project started on June 23 and
aims to protect Kazakhstan endangered saiga antelope.
Poaching and predatory wolves are the main reasons for its
disappearance. Saigas are hunted for their prized horns,
which fetch $100 per kilogram. The third phase of the
project will begin in March 2006. The objective of the
third stage is to protect young saiga antelopes from
poachers and wolves. (Strana i Mir, November 25, 2005)

National Strategy on Avian Flu to be Ready by Year's End
-------------- --------------


11. (U) Kazakhstan's National Strategy on Avian Influenza
Prevention should be ready by the end of the year.
Specialists from the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of
Agriculture, and the Republican Sanitary and Epidemiological
Center are working on the strategy, incorporating
recommendations from the WHO and the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control. The strategy calls for the creation of a
system for constant monitoring, the establishment of
diagnostic laboratories, and the purchasing of the Tamiflu
vaccine, the only known effective means of combating avian
flu. (newswire@apex.kz, November 30, 2005)


Kazakhstani Scientists Decipher Genome of H5N1 Virus
-------------- --------------


12. (U) Scientists at the Agricultural Research Institute in
Almaty Oblast have deciphered the genome of the H5N1
virus, which opens the possibility of identifying if the
strain is a Kazakhstani virus. Researchers at the
Institute discovered that the Kazakhstani virus is 100%
identical to the Russian virus and 99% identical to the
Chinese one. Scientists at the Institute are confident
they could produce vaccines in several months time, but
are unable to do so because they lack funding. To combat
avian flu, scientists have recommended the establishment
of a biological safety center. The government is moving
in this direction, having allocated 95 million Tenge to
fund the first year of the 2006-2008 Program for
Biosafety. One of the program's objectives is the
prevention of spread of the avian flu virus.
(Kazakhstanskaya Pravda, November 30, 2005)

Senate Adopts Law on Ecological Insurance
--------------


13. (U) On November 23, at its plenary session, the Senate
ratified the "Law On Mandatory Ecological Insurance."
Minister of Environmental Protection Aitkul Samakova noted
that the new law creates the legal basis for mandatory
ecological insurance of liabilities of physical and legal
entities carrying out environmentally hazardous economic
activity, and for damage to health and property of third
parties or the environment as a result of accidental
pollution. The insurance sum for individual entrepreneurs
will total 5 monthly index factors (MIF) and for legal
entities will total 65 MIFs. (Kazinform, November 23,
2005)