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Questions remain about waste dumps in Mangistau

Kazakhstan country map
IRIN
Waste dumps near the western Kazakh town of Aktau remain a source of environmental concern for local ecology officials and scientists. Hundreds of mt of various radioactive and toxic waste have been discharged into the 'Koshkar-Ata' repository since 1965, impacting the adjacent area and the health of local inhabitants. "The fine dust from the bare spots of the tailing are blown towards Aktau due to rising winds," Sarkyt Kudaibergenov, the deputy director of the Kaztransoil science-technology centre, told IRIN from the Kazakh commercial capital, Almaty, describing the situation as serious. "You can imagine the implications when the local people breathe this fine [radioactive] dust from the tailing, where there is the whole periodic table of elements, including uranium and other radioactive elements." But not everybody agreed. "There had been a risk of [radioactive] dust due to the uncovering of some parts of the [lake's] bank. The chemical plant discharged phosphoric gypsum [to the dump] from 1994 to 1996 when they stopped processing radioactive ore," Marat Orynbasarov, the deputy head of the provincial environment protection department told IRIN from Aktau, where some 185,000 people live. "Phosphoric gypsum has covered the [radioactive] waste [at the bottom of the tailing] with a crust and it doesn't get dusty," Orynbasarov maintained, adding that they had conducted soil samples last year and had not found any signs of a problem. The "Koshkar-Ata" waste dump, eight km away from the centre of the country's oil industry, is a drain-free artificial lake that has been used for dumping industrial, toxic, chemical and radioactive waste from the Mangistau Chemical Metallurgical Plant and other industrial enterprises from the region since 1965. According to some sources the total amount of waste in the tailing is more than 350 million mt, including some 100 million mt of uranium waste. The total area of the waste tailing is about 55 sq km. To prevent toxic dust from spreading, water was poured into the tailing dump and had to be added periodically to prevent the drying up of the surface. Orynbasarov said that the Kazakh Institute of Nuclear Physics and 'Kazmehanobr' Institute based in Almatay, along with the Russian organisation "Mehanoblenginnering' from St. Petersburg, carried out some research, by taking samples of soil and plants around the dumps in the direction of nearby settlements for radioactivity. "The level of radioactivity appeared to be within norms," he said, adding that the negative impact on the health of the local population hadn't been found yet. "Phosphoric gypsum for the time being is covering waste, but it can be destroyed within time," Orynbasarov cautioned. He noted, however, by that time there should be a better means of tackling the issue more thoroughly. The environment official noted that nature favoured them and there were lots of rains over recent years, hinting that rains had prevented the tailing's water surface from drying. "However, we cannot rely on the weather," he said. Some research by the Institute of Nuclear Physics was still underway, financed by the provincial authorities, he added. Regarding practical solutions to the problem, Kudaibergenov suggested fortifying the soil, in an effort to prevent it from dusting and affecting the environment, as well as the health of local inhabitants, in the near future. Such a strategy had been undertaken earlier in the former nuclear testing area of Semipalatinsk in the north of the country and proven successful.

This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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