Kazakhstan is currently working to overcome some major environmental issues. While taking steps to stabilize harmful emissions and water pollution from the energy and metallurgical industries, the country hopes first to address “legacy” pollutions.
Kazakhstan has been implementing stricter environmental controls, including obligatory environmental impact assessments for agricultural or industrial projects, or other large-scale construction programs.
The Aral Sea had been shrinking since Soviet times when two rivers were diverted to irrigate land for cotton production. The lake’s shrinkage has been the cause of many environmental and public health problems in the area, and has been described as the worst man-made environmental catastrophe of the 20th century. Since 1992, Kazakhstan has been working with neighboring states to find a solution to provide the necessary water without doing further damage to the ecosystem, and these efforts have been working. Thanks to the regeneration project, the northern part of the sea has returned to 40 percent of its original size.
Another crucial issue is the nuclear contamination of the Semipalatinsk area by Soviet nuclear testing conducted between 1949 and 1990. A variety of programs have been established to curb the environmental effects of radiation and to help those directly impacted – but the tragic effects continue, many years after the tests were halted.