Kazakhstan: Man-Made Environmental Hazards Threaten Lake Balkhash

The irony is not lost on residents, who are well accustomed to taking what they can get in this town of 74,000. An industrial outpost on an ecologically fragile lake of the same name, Balkhash is one of the gritty engines powering resource-rich Kazakhstan's economic growth. Yet while grandiose Astana trumpets its 10th year as the country's capital, the metallic tang in the air over Balkhash makes its own celebration bittersweet. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Hundreds of miles from any other sizable settlement, the city seems lost in a time warp – stuck in an era when Soviet planners harnessed the environment with unbridled enthusiasm and a lack of foresight for ecological consequences. Murals and statues from the not-so-distant past glorify the town's industrial roots.

The main smokestack of the Balkhashtsvetmet plant, a frequent element of those murals, works 24 hours a day, seven days a week. When the winds are unfavorable, its discolored plume spreads over the city like a long bruise. Locals describe those times with an obscenity which, though it initially strikes one as crude, seems perfectly apt after a stroll through the eye-watering, cough-inducing smoke.

The factory is largely devoted to smelting copper from nearby mines, although the complex also refines zinc, molybdenum, and precious metals in smaller quantities. Its owner, copper producer Kazakhmys, is one of Kazakhstan's leading industrial concerns, and is among the top 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange.

City prosecutor Ramazan Intykbayev announced in late 2006 that Balkhashtsvetmet had recorded a number of violations of workplace safety and a near doubling of industrial accidents compared to the same seven-month period in 2005, according to news agency Kazakhstan Today. The prosecutor's office opened two criminal cases and issued several administrative penalties as a result of its inspection, the report continued.

Workers said the plant is often unwilling to follow routine health and safety standards, and that Balkhashtsvetmet's vital importance to the local economy made it all the less likely to clean up. "Conditions? There aren't any conditions. There's no one you can complain to. If you complain, the next day you'll be fired," said an employee at the copper factory who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution. In absolute terms, he added, pay at the plant was decent. "But whenever they raise salaries, you go to the market and the prices are all up. So there's no difference."

Locals attribute a variety of illnesses to the factory.

"We're all sick here," said Stepan Plushnikov, a retired lathe operator fishing near the town harbor. He listed heart disease and asthma as two of the more common ailments.

"They just raised the pensions, which we get at 63. Can we even live that long in such an environment?" asked the copper plant worker.

The damage to plant and animal life is not limited to a lack of grass. Several residents noted that in 2005, all of the town's birds disappeared. A man even described watching one drop out of the sky in mid-flight. The lake water includes significant concentrations of metals, although according to officials it still falls within international standards.

The plant was building another anniversary gift, a filter to capture the worst of the pollutants, but it burned down this spring. It is reportedly under reconstruction.

The filtration system may make everyday life easier in Balkhash. But the lake itself – critical to all aspects of the regional economy, from the vulnerable fishery to industrial and agricultural use – will likely remain in perilous condition even if pollution from the plant subsides. Environmentalists are concerned that Chinese plans to harness the Ili River, which originates in Western China and provides 80 percent of the lake's water, may doom Balkhash to a fate similar to that of Aral Sea. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Kuanysh Isbekov, director of the Balkhash branch of the Kazakh Fishing Industry Center, said that the lake's shallow average depth of 20 feet made it especially vulnerable to changes in water supply. Lower water levels would lead to a greater concentration of pollutants, reduced fish populations, and higher salinity, potentially negating the lake's usefulness as an economic resource, he said.

Kazakhstan's rapid development and need for energy is reviving yet another environmental controversy tied to the lake – the possible construction of a nuclear power station on its shores. The scheme, set aside in the late 1990s amid public outcry, was dusted off after several senior government officials commented in the past year on the attractiveness of nuclear power.

For many city residents, though, Lake Balkhash remains a respite from the more acute environmental and health problems caused by the smelter.

A family picnicking near an outflow channel that emerged from the municipal power plant did not seem bothered by signs that forbade swimming. Watching her nephew float in a pool created by the runoff, one woman dismissed worries about water quality. She had seen carp in the pool, which she called "a very clean fish."

Plus, she added, it was too good a swimming spot to pass up. "The water is warm – like bathwater."