Environmental Degradation In Kazakhstan - Class Paper

Michael Hancock Prof. Zlotin U574 Research Paper

Environmental Degradation in Kazakhstan Kazakhstan can today safely boast the strongest economy in Central Asia. However, the recent growth of that economy has brought with it very real and undeniable social and environmental costs. And of course, many of the environmental and social concerns owe more to the country’s Soviet past than to the recent petrochemical and heavy metals developments. What’s more, many of the issues are the consequences of undemocratic decisions, the results of which will persist for years, generations, or even multiple lifetimes. Soil erosion, for example, “…is not reversible in any meaningful human time frame. Once nutrient-rich topsoil is lost, the capacity of the land to store the nutrients and the water that plants need to sustain growth is greatly diminished.”1 This paper, then, is organized roughly by the time frame of each issue. In the first part, there will be a discussion of the wealthy of mineral and biological resources available in Kazakhstan, and the issues surrounding them. Second, this paper will consider those problems that might be addressed successfully in the next fifty years, especially biodiversity degradation, chemical pollution of the environment, and the sad state of the Kazakhstan Ministry of Health. Finally, those problems which can only be described as ‘longterm’: radioactive contamination, soil erosion and loss of soil quality, and water

1

(Brown, 2002)

1

mismanagement. Kazakhstan faces an uncertain future with the collapse of the world economy, and the decisions made in this present will either improve the future environmental situation, or cause even worse degradation. The government of independent Kazakhstan would 2

do well to review the situation, and which policies brought it about.

Resources of Kazakhstan Kazakhstan is home to much of the mineral wealth of the former Soviet Union. The country easily ranks among the world’s leading countries in lead, zinc, and uranium reserves. In addition, there are significant amounts of bauxite aluminum, copper, gold, iron, and manganese. Perhaps the most famous natural wealth of Kazakhstan is the source of petroleum reserves, oil and natural gas. When put in comparison with the Commonwealth of Independent States, Kazakhstan ranks second in manganese, nickel, oil, silver, zinc, and phosphate, and third in coal, gas, gold, and tin.2 It is in first place, however, with regards to chromium production and processing. Chromium in Kazakhstan was discovered largely with the Voskhod deposit that was found in 1963. The wealth in that and other mines led Soviet geologists to joke that the entire table of elements could be found in Kazakhstan. The wealth of lead in Kazakhstan, as well as zinc and copper, employs tens of thousands of people in the extraction and processing industry. Shymkent’s lead plant used to produce 2

(Richard M. Levine and Glenn J. Wallace, 2007)

more than sixty thousand tons per year. While production has slowed in the new petroleumcentered economy and with the growing expense of deeper deposits, in the time of the Soviet Union gave the city the nickname of ‘Ammunition City.’ 3

The shining star of the mineral wealth of Kazakhstan, however, is its crude oil reserves. Kazakhstan owns and controls the Caspian Sea region’s largest recoverable crude oil reserves. In addition, its domestic use remains an extremely small percent of its production, allowing for almost all extraction to be profit-driven. For example, in 2005 Kazakhstan produced 1.29 million barrels of oil per day, while only consuming 222 thousand barrels per day – a net profit of more than one million barrels per day. Moreover, the government of Kazakhstan, with Western, Russian, and Chinese investors competing to offer support, has announced plans to increase production to 3.5 million barrels per day by the year 2015. The deposits to be developed include the Kurmangazy and Kashagan, both notoriously difficult to work, and consisting of high amounts of sulfur. In addition, the Tengiz oilfield is to be expanded to the amount of a seventy-five percent increase in production. The world economic crisis has had a devastating effect on the global oil prices, but the government of Kazakhstan has yet to retract any of its plans for development.

The last crucial resource to be considered is uranium. However, as uranium and radiation and the nuclear industry are entirely connected, this topic will be covered in the third section of the paper. 4

Short Term Problems Short term might be a misleading label, as the issues in this section of the paper are short only in comparison with the interminable issues of soil erosion and nuclear radiation. More importantly, however, is the fact that these short-term issues are wholly dependent on direct attention from the government and people of Kazakhstan. The degradation of the biological diversity in Kazakhstan, the continued pollution of the air, land, and sea, and the dismal state of affairs in the Kazakhstan Ministry of Health are very serious and daunting problems. They are also problems with real solutions, though they may require reevaluation of the priorities of Kazakhstan’s development process and a coming to terms with the heretofore unbounded progress of Kazakhstan’s extraction-driven economy. Biological diversity is one of the backbones of a strong ecology, and the Soviet Union’s monolithic approach to conservation and economic progress was very damaging. In particular, the role of Mother Nature was one of provider. Stalin, and Lenin to a lesser degree, had little patience for environmentalists, and felt that the Earth was able to provide absolutely

everything that the Soviet Union could possibly desire of it. Hunting and poaching were widespread throughout the country, and nature preserves were small, understaffed, and underfunded.3 The wild antelope of the steppe, the saiga, were nearly hunted to extinction on 5

several occasions,4 their survival owing more to their scarcity than to government sponsored programs to support their populations. The national symbol of Kazakhstan, the snow leopard, is a shadow of its former glory. Populations are claimed to still roam the Tien Shan Mountains in the south of Kazakhstan, but most studies commit their numbers solely to Kyrgyzstan, and to the Pamir Mountains and other southerly mountain ranges.5 Pollution in Kazakhstan remains an endemic problem, whether in the urban areas of industrial development and population pressures, or in the rural areas due to agricultural procedures and extraction-related spills and dumps. Kazakhstan’s current status as strongest economy in the Central Asian region owes much to its oil wealth, but that same abundance is acting as a detractor to the environment.6 Chinese, Russian, and Western investors have little concern for the local environment. Kazakhstan’s own government, lamentably, also does not seem to take the precautions seriously enough. After the level of the Caspian Sea began to rise in the final years of the Soviet Union, little action was taken to protect the waters from

3

(Weiner, 1999) (Kharin, 2002) 5 (Melvin E. Sunquist, Fiona Sunquist, 2002) p. 389 6 (McCauley, 2004) 4

pollutions encountered in reclaimed seabed. Even after independence, as oil wells on the shores were inundated while still leaking oil, little was done.7 In Kazakhstan’s defense, the economic situation of the early 1990s did not allow for even the most basic protective 6

measures to be taken, but even now with its petroleum-fueled economy Kazakhstan plays a dangerous game in its development of off-shore oil reserves and the construction of massive pipelines across ecologically fragile territory. Kazakhstan’s deals with China should give environmentalists pause. The Republic of Kazakhstan does not have a bright history of environmental protection, but its reputation is quite safe in comparison with China’s. Long known as a burgeoning economy willing to do any damage to its environment necessitate by central plans, China has discovered oil in its northwestern province of Xinjiang, as well as its neighbor west of Urumqi.8 Pipelines have been built, oil and gas are pumping across the steppe, and the environmental costs of such projects are rarely, if ever, called into question. Some analysts suspect that Kazakhstan is simply bowing to pressure from its powerful neighbors, while others suggest that Kazakhstan has just as much to gain from these relationships as the Chinese government.9

7

(Adambai, 2005) (Liao, 2006) 9 (Wu, 2007) 8

The abundance of oil has also sparked social tensions. The flow of wealth to Kazakhstan has created a growing middle class, and jobs once coveted by Kazakhstani citizens are now farmed out to migrant workers. Job-site brawls and payment discrepancies abound, adding to 7

the social pressures in Kazakhstan.10 The state of civil society in Kazakhstan is improving as more and more Western investment moves into the region, bringing NGOs and sponsorship programs in its wake. All of this investment, sadly, has done little to aid the health of the average Kazakhstani citizen. In fact, the health situation in Kazakhstan is perhaps the most serious societal issue now facing the government. In recent years, the government has been faced with the outbreak of AIDS in many environments, at first isolated at industrial sites home to masses of drug-addicts and prostitutes. However, the problem has exploded in the southern capital of Shymkent, where a small hospital was convicted of accidentally infecting dozens of children and their mothers with HIV through post-natal blood transfusions.11 Instead of calling into question the Soviet medicinal practices regarding transfusions, blood donations, and post-natal care,12 the local government was entirely sacked, along with key health officials. The problem was claimed to be solved, but AIDS testing is far from common or mandatory, and in fact continues to carry a

10

(Lillis, Oilfield Brawl Dents Kazakhstan's Image, 2006) (Sershen, 2007) 12 (Falkingham, 2002) 11

deadly stigma. In fact, the unfortunate victims of the first wave of infections have been ostracized by their families, and the surviving mothers have moved out of their hometowns to find refuge in women’s shelters and foreign NGOs.13 The health situation in Kazakhstan is not 8

improving, but instead becoming increasingly politicized,14 similar to that in Turkmenistan, where the former Minister of Health was a dentist, and is now the President. Even this issue, however, is more hopeful than the problems covered in the next section, as Healthcare is absolutely controlled by the government, and the leaders of the government have real powers to affect change.

Long Term Problems Radioactive contamination and soil erosion are perhaps the issues that Kazakhstan will be dealing with the longest. The first is absolutely artificial, while the second is the result of the natural climate and the actions of the Soviet and post-Soviet governments with regards to agriculture and livestock. Much of the agricultural land in Central Asia was degraded in response to human activity. Some of the primary areas of concern are waterlogging from excessive irrigation, shallow soils, high natural and artificially induced salinity, and accelerated erosion. Soil degradation in agricultural lands by salinization is a serious problem in

13 14

(Lillis, Government in Kazakhstan Addresses HIV-Infection Scandal, 2006) (Grabman, 2004)

Kazakhstan, where approximately 50% of the land is affected.15 Across the entirety of Central Asia, about ten percent of the land is completely degraded, though Kazakhstan has the highest area at seventeen percent.16 Overgrazing and deforestation are the primary cause, though 9

chemical degradation via pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers is also prevalent, affecting approximately thirty percent of the arable land in Kazakhstan.17 During the Soviet Union, great swaths of once fertile pastures turned in time into sandy deserts because of the overgrazing that was practiced without a seasonal rotation. In addition, the movement away from multispecies to monospecies herd composition had serious consequences for the plant diversity, ecology, and soil health of the steppe.18 The change was the result of new Soviet policies that collectivized the traditionally nomadic Kazakh herders into large, mostly stationary state ranches. Prior to the devastating collectivization, the Kazakh nomads would move several times a year to allow the pastures to recover, constantly moving to fresh grazing with mixed herds of camels, cows, sheep, goats, and, of course, horses. It is difficult to determine which was more disastrous for the very land of Kazakhstan; the collectivization, the opening of the Virgin Lands, or the nuclear testing at Semipalatinsk.

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(R. Lal, M. Suleimenov, B. A. Stewart, 2007) p. 143 Ibid. 17 Ibid. 18 (Wolfson, 1990) 16

The Virgin Lands campaign and its results is one of the most contentious situations in Kazakhstan today. Still hailed by many as one of the great successes of the Soviet Union, nothing could be further from the truth. While it is true that, after plowing the northern 10

steppe and planting grain, the Soviet Union was able to reap several years of bumper crops, meeting and surpassing goals. It is also true that, due to the complete disappearance of the top soil and humus in those same areas, Kazakhstan has had to abandon half of its cultivated grain lands since 1980.19 The Virgin Lands began in the 1950s as an initiative to promise expanded grain production the make the Soviet Union into an agricultural super power. At its height, the area of grassland plowed under for grain was greater than the wheat-growing areas of Canada and Australia combined.20 The heroic efforts of those farmers produced 26 million hectares of cultivated land, effort that was doomed before it began. Wheat yields on the remaining half [13 million hectares] are only a fraction of the Western world’s, as Kazakhstan routinely harvests less than one tone per hectare, unlike the seven tons per hectare culled from French wheat fields.21 The fact of the matter is that the soil erosion that causes these issues cannot begin to be addressed until the faulty agricultural practices are recognized as they are. As it is, even if Kazakhstan were to reverse the situation 180°, there would still be decades of

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(Brown L. R., 2003) p. 94 (Brown L. , 2002) p.16 21 Ibid. 20

restoration work and millions of dollars needing to be spent to replace the fragile steppe grasses, humus, and top soil so callously torn away by the tractors of Soviet progress. Kazakhstan has a long history with the nuclear industry, and probably a long future 11

ahead of it. In terms of resources, Kazakhstan holds approximately one-fifth of the world’s uranium reserves and, while it is not the world’s largest producer, it is ranked fourth and fastest-growing.22 KazAtomProm is Kazakhstan’s primary nuclear entity, and it has plans to both develop the Vostok uranium field and to complete the development of the Zvezdnoye field, as well.23 Not all of the developments of KazAtomProm are popular among the Kazakhstani populace. Recently, plans to build a nuclear power station in a seismically active part of the country were made public. Opposition was fostered by several NGOs, though the project has the blessing of the Kazakh president Nazarbaev and its Russian financiers. The power station in question is part of Kazakhstan’s plans to receive nuclear waste, incinerate the waste to recover some energy, and then bury the remnants at specific locations in the steppe.24 The program would entail heavy profits for the government, though some have questioned where the money will go and how it will be spent once the nuclear waste begins to arrive.25 The power station is slated for construction on the shores of Lake Balkhash, and the NGOs are

22

(Richard M. Levine and Glenn J. Wallace, 2007) Ibid. 24 (Abisheva, 2003) 25 (Berniker, 2003) 23

mobilizing citizens already concerned about conditions in Balkhash to oppose the action. According to the energy minister Vladimir Shkolnik, “Building the Balkhash atomic station should not be decided by public organizations,” and that the project is justifiable when 12

considering the dearth of domestic power resources.26 The situation at Semipalatinsk is much as it was twenty years ago, and much as it will be twenty years from now, two hundred years from, or even two thousand years from now. The populations that have not moved away from the contaminated areas near the nuclear testing sites of the Polygon have depressed birth rates, increased death rates, astronomical cancer rates, and depleted immune systems.27 In short, the situation near the atom bomb test grounds is unlike anything else in Kazakhstan, and quite outside the possibilities of the current government to make serious amends.

Conclusion Kazakhstan is a country plagued with problems, even as it is blessed with an abundance of natural resources. However, those same resources have proven to be at least as much of a curse as they have a blessing, and it remain to be seen what the governments of autocratic leaders like Nazarbaev can achieve during their extended political careers. Indeed, the health

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(Abisheva, 2003) ( Brit Salbu, Lindis Skipperud, 2008)

and welfare of the Kazakhstani populace is not a top priority for the current Kazakhstan regime, as evidenced by their lackluster approach to healthcare reform, their inability to enact real change regarding agricultural mistakes, and their continuation of harmful plans regarding 13

nuclear waste and the potential contamination of even more of the once virgin landscape. While the Kazakhstani people look to the past to regain their nomadic heritage, it would behoove the president to look to the future to save his country’s ecological destiny before it is too late. This paper has attempted to discuss the positive and negative aspects of Kazakhstan’s current situation. The vast mineral wealth, the economic power attendant to oil and gas reserves, the proud nomadic history and diverse ethnic composition of the population are all important in shaping Kazakhstan’s future. The optimism of the president of Kazakhstan may or may not be misplaced, but the belief that mankind can reverse the adverse affects of mankind’s unrelenting progress is laudable, if not entirely realistic. Instead, this paper has demonstrated the those problems most likely to be addressed in the next generation will be those that are primarily social concerns, while the environmental degradation will be a concern for hundreds of years to come. Soil erosion and radioactive contamination are not susceptible to legislation or the government decrees, but instead require the steady hand of time, liberally applied.

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