Environmental protection in Kazakhstan

"Is the country going green through initiatives like waste management and selective sorting programs, renewable energies, public transport, green awareness campaigns and so forth?"

It talks the talk ... but the reality is something quite different ...

Once a year, some local citizens (but in reality, generally staff from the hospitals, doctors et cetera) get roped into doing a clean-up around their khrushchyovkas, but that is about it ...

The rubbish disposal system is abysmal and often sewage (and rubbish, domestic and industrial) is dumped into areas just outside the city centre, in summer, you just cannot drive past there for the stench ...

Another problem that they appear to not wish to address is the continued burning of coal and wood for domestic purposes in homes and particularly in dachas where they will have banyas, flying back in on a Sunday evening, there is a dense cloud of smoke from these fires and the smell of unburnt coal gas and burnt wood fills the air on the drive from the airport into the city ... a scene repeated across the bulk of Kazakhstan.

Kazakhstan has real environmental problems in many of its regions, mostly associated with the CCCP-era industries and agricultural methods of that time.

In our city, Ust-Kamenogorsk, we get SMS warnings regarding pollution levels, but generally only when they get so bad that it is impossible for the government to ignore it.

People are often advised not to go outside, especially if they have a medical condition ...

One of our two rivers is called "Shiny River" (for obvious reasons), the city is also the capital of the region the former CCCP exploded around 450 nuclear weapons in (many of them above ground, atmospheric testing), the problems still continue from that time.

The beryllium processing plant exploded some time ago and covered the city with fallout ... medically speaking, we still do not have a good grasp on the ongoing health implications of that ...

I will leave you with the message on a sign on the outskirts of Ust-Kamenogorsk, it says, more or less, abandon hope all you who enter here ... with biohazard pictograms either side of the message ...