Lake contaminated in chemical spill

Huge quantities of golden carp in Lake Zabochnoye, in north Kazakhstan’s Kyzylzhar District, have been destroyed by chemical contamination, Interfax-Kazakhstan reported this week. Citing a spill between 10 and 12 August, it said laboratory tests had shown excessive amounts of the chemical diamine in the lake water rendering the fish unfit for human consumption. Public health services had banned fishing in the lake and established “appropriate controls” in market towns, after specialists determined it impossible for the public at large to distinguish between contaminated and healthy fish, it said. It said the contamination had been caused either by contamination from herbicides used to treat nearby wheat fields or by aerial pesticide spraying to stop locusts.