Recently, at a meeting of the Council for Attracting Investments, a project for the construction of a water pipeline with a cascade of hydroelectric power stations on the Ugam River in the Turkestan region of the Republic of Kazakhstan was approved. A number of environmental organizations criticize these plans. A Ratel.kz correspondent talked about this with the head of the Ecological Society «Green Salvation» Sergei KURATOV:
— Sergei Georgievich, what is wrong with the story surrounding plans for the construction of water management facilities in Ugama?
— That they will be located on the territory of the national park. In 2016, Sairam-Ugam National Natural Park was included in the UNESCO World Natural Heritage List as part of the Western Tien Shan transboundary site, which includes protected areas of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. This inspired optimism.
But around 2021, the idea arose to build a cascade of hydroelectric power stations and a water pipeline on the territory of the natural park to supply energy and water to the residents of the region. A serious question involuntarily arises: five years earlier, when the application for inclusion of the site on the UNESCO list was considered, these needs were not known? How do our authorized departments plan? The right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing? Moreover, we are talking about a cross-border facility, the change of which will affect the interests of neighboring countries.
Plans for the construction of a cascade of hydroelectric power stations and a water pipeline contradict four international treaties that were signed by Kazakhstan. These are the conventions on world cultural and natural heritage, on biological diversity, on environmental impact assessment in a transboundary context and the conventions on the protection and use of transboundary watercourses and international lakes.
— When you talk about transboundary watercourses, do you mean that the source of the Ugam River is in Kazakhstan?
— Yes. Ugam passes through the Sairam-Ugam National Park, crosses the border with Uzbekistan and flows into the Chirchik River.
A number of specialists and public organizations, the international coalition «Rivers Without Borders», and our organization are raising the issue of the inadmissibility of building such facilities on the territory of the national park. The International Union for Conservation of Nature and the World Heritage Center were informed of this situation. Their experts came to Kazakhstan. The official assessment has not yet been announced, but the attitude of experts towards construction plans is rather negative.
Unfortunately, we have to remind you again and again that, in accordance with the Constitution of Kazakhstan, international treaties take precedence over national laws. Not to mention the fact that these are very important conventions, the observance of which is taken very seriously in the world. And I would like to remind you that Kazakhstan has been included in the World Heritage Committee since 2023!
The way events are developing in the Sairam-Ugam National Park is explained by a number of reasons that have existed for many years. This is the lack of an environmental policy of the state; there is no clear idea of how specially protected natural areas should be preserved and used. There is no understanding that they are a strategic resource of the state.
In our legislation, these are considered industrial and infrastructure facilities, but not water sources, not glaciers, not forests, not specially protected natural areas. Although they are the ones who provide the population with resources, without which not only development, but life is impossible. Now, in the context of the global environmental crisis, this has become especially obvious. Specially protected natural areas are precisely the resource and tool that can help mitigate climate change. And as sources of fresh water, which are especially important in the south and southeast of Kazakhstan, and as storage facilities for biodiversity, which is necessary for the sustainable development of agriculture, for afforestation and the absorption of excess volumes of carbon dioxide. The question of the strategic importance of water resources was raised by the President of Kazakhstan back in 2013, but remained in the air.
— If your opponents object that they will implement projects in the Sairam-Ugam National Park with the highest level of control, with minimal damage to the environment?
— That’s exactly what they say. But, firstly, there are no construction or industrial projects, especially large-scale ones, that do not negatively affect the environment.
Secondly, according to the norms of those conventions that have been ratified by the Republic of Kazakhstan, such activities are prohibited in principle. Such activities are contrary to national laws. Accordingly, such projects can only be launched either bypassing the law, or changing laws and adjusting them to business requirements.
Here is a striking example from the history of the same Sairam-Ugam National Park. A ski resort was created in the park. And in order to build it, two hundred and sixty hectares were removed from the protected area of the park, in which any activity is prohibited with the exception of regulated ecological tourism, and included in the zone of limited economic activity. We jokingly call it «a zone of unlimited economic activity». And so that the total area of the protected area did not change, two hundred and sixty hectares were transferred from the zone of limited economic activity to the protected area.
This is tantamount to moving museum exhibits to a stable and transferring horses to a building specially created for the museum.
All this demonstrates a clear trend towards easing our environmental legislation. The saddest thing is that this is happening against the backdrop of recognition by official bodies of the fact that the country is experiencing «a serious deterioration in the state of natural resources and the environment in all the most important environmental indicators».
Let me give you a few more examples.
Conservation areas are not included in Annex 1 to the Environmental Code. This is a list of types of planned activities and facilities for which environmental impact assessment is mandatory. This is despite the fact that the international convention on impact assessment in a transboundary context explicitly requires it.
Further – in Kazakh legislation there is no such thing as specially protected natural areas of international importance. This is all the more strange since the concept «monuments of international significance» is present in the law on the protection of monuments.
Finally, the «Country Report on Climate and Development» prepared by the World Bank Group in 2022 noted that «the provisions of the Environmental Code are vaguely formulated and can be widely interpreted by ministries and departments, and the MEGPR of the Republic of Kazakhstan does not have sufficient powers, resources and capacity to form and coordinate the implementation of policies and budgets».
— The environmental community has some ways and tools to influence these processes?
— There are tools, but they work very poorly. «Green Salvation» jurisprudence shows that winning a case is difficult, but it is even more difficult to enforce a court decision. This suggests that access to justice in our country, to put it mildly, does not meet the norms of the Aarhus Convention.
Unfortunately, the situation will apparently only get worse. This is especially clearly seen in the example of Almaty. The city is encroaching on the lands of the national park, smog is increasingly covering the city and the national park, and the quality of water and recreational resources is declining. According to the latest official data, there is not a single water body in the city with first-class water quality. That is, one that can be used for any purpose without any cleaning.
This is despite the fact that literally next to Almaty there are glaciers, which recently supplied citizens with high-quality water from a reservoir on the Charyn River in the Almaty region of Kazakhstan.
Yaroslav Razumov (Ratel.kz)