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The Environment in
Kazakhstan
By
Asya Abekesheva
Today Western Kazakhstan has become the source of great attention of international companies, politicians, scientists, businessmen who are attracted to the area by gas and oil. One of the largest companies founded here is Karachaganak. This project was started in 1992, when Kazakhstan’s government held tender for gas and oil extraction. Thanks to increasing of the extraction of natural resources , Karachaganak has become the leader in gas and oil industry. At the beginning of 2001 it was planned to construct a pipeline for another large project refining plant.
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The new refining plant means real possibility for growth of the local economy, jobs for people and many other good prospects. On the other hand, it influences the environmental health of the local population and increasing danger of accidents. The regional Department of Environmental Protection foresees that discharges into the environment will increase three times. And what about poisonous pollutions in case of accidents and failures against which nobody can be guaranteed? That means the increasing of environmental discharges for everything alive. We can see from the example of our neighbors, Atyrau people living near the Tengis deposit. From the beginning of the joint venture’s activity - Tengis Shevroil (1993) 190 people died in the nearest village and it was reported that at the enterprise there were 65 deaths. Many of the people died of cerebral circulation dysfunction, cancer and heart attacks. It was mentioned in the ecologists’ account that the company didn’t undertake safety measures in gas burning. It was also reported that the compressor station which was put into the operation in 1997 didn’t work well because of drawbacks.
Meanwhile, the environmental condition and people’s health are evaluated by specialists as in danger . Inhabitants of the nearest village held unsanctioned meetings as a protest against deposit operators. In the Burlin region, the rate of disease is higher than in Oblast. Soil in 20 samples which was taken from different depths and places in the Karachaganak deposit contained less microbes than normal. From 11 soil samples taken from Bolshoi Grifon, four of them contained nothing and only two of them contained bacteria. It could be explained with the presence of oil and its influence on microbes’ growth. The soil smells like oil. Microbe studies in this region report that some of them, especially microbes under the influence of Karachaganak gas began to reproduce rapidly. That’s why without catching a cold you can get respiratory infections if you stay in the atmosphere polluted with sulfur substances and hydrocarbons. Useful microbes are destroyed but useless ones reproduce. Humus in this region is lifeless and nothing will grow on it.
I think we, the growing generation, have to pay attention to this problem of Western Kazakhstan. Karachaganak development, increasing of drilling works and construction of refining plant demand public attention to Karachaganak enterprise.
The author of this article, Asya Abekesheva, is studying at School-lyceum # 35 in Uralsk, Western Kazakhstan.
Your article brings up a very important point: economic
development vs. environmental protection. Is it better to increase the
standard of living for people in Western Kazakhstan (or anywhere else for
that matter) by providing them jobs in a refining plant which could
potentially cause harm to their healths and environment, or to maintain
their current standard of living and preserve the already suffering
ecology of the area? This question is relevent in many other areas:
rainforest destruction, logging, and other situations in which the
environment is sacrificed for economic reasons. Tough questions.. Is there
a middle road? Currently in America there is talk of building a natural
gas pipeline and drilling for petroleum in the North Slope of Alaska. The
North Slope is the largest area of untouched wilderness left in the United
States: 36,000 square miles of fragile tundra environment. Drilling and
mining there would cause a lot of damage to the area. Another source of
fuel would make the US less dependent on its current sources of fuel. Is
more oil worth the environmental risks? I don’t think
so.
Ariela Zamcheck
Stuyvesant HS
NYC,
USA
Arilime202@aol.com