The projects of the HPP on the Koksu River threaten the graves of the batyrs

The scandal surrounding the construction of a cascade of hydroelectric power stations on the Koksu River began a few months ago and then subsides, then flares up with renewed vigor. Recently, a press conference was held in Almaty, which was gathered by archaeologists. They claim that power plants threaten historical monuments and ecology.

The project to create a hydroelectric power station on the Koksu River has existed almost since Soviet times. According to various sources, there should have been seven or ten stations. The project was implemented in 2024, when the construction of the Verkhe-Talaptinskaya and two Rudnichnaya HPPs began. But, as it turned out, the area of the proposed cascade of hydroelectric power plants is also valuable from a historical point of view. Ancient petroglyphs, burial grounds and burial mounds were found there. And Koksu is also popular with rafting.

The maximum social activists initially set as their task to stop the construction of the HPP on Koksu. They explained this not only by the historical and recreational value of the river, but also by its mudflow hazard. As a confirmation of this argument, the Verkhne-Talaptinskaya HPP and Rudnichnaya HPP-1 had to face a lot of water in the spring.

The minimum task was called by activists on the rights of social activists to obtain documents for the construction of stations – a feasibility study, etc. They talked about this back in February. But as Olga Gumirova, executive director of the Petroglyph Hunters Foundation, said, they have not received the documents for all this time. And in general, they have been having problems with the authorities of the Zhetysu region for several months.

“At the end of May we had a meeting in the regional akimat. But our phones were taken away from us and we couldn’t fix anything. They decided to create a commission that will deal with the analysis of this situation. Specific instructions were given to the heads of departments. We were asked to put in the protocol our suggestions and questions that we want to get answers to. We sent everything, and after that the akimat stopped responding to our requests and letters at all,” says Olga Gumirova.

Perhaps the answer to the letters and requests of public figures was the press release of the akimat of the Zhetysu region dated June 20, dedicated to the topic of hydroelectric power plants and petroglyphs. It mentions a commission to assess the situation with petroglyphs on the Eshkiolmes ridge and says that nothing threatens the rock carvings.

“The Eshkiolmes petroglyphs are located five to six kilometers from the construction site of the Verkhne-Talaptinskaya HPP. At the same time, according to the points of the order of the Minister of Culture and Sports, archaeological sites are surrounded by a security zone of 120 meters,” the release says.

But, as Olga Gumirova said, they spent almost the whole summer on expeditions to Koksa, studying not only the Eshkiolmes ridge itself, where one of the largest petroglyphs in Eurasia has long been recorded, but also the surrounding gorges:

“We actually managed to prove that the Eshkiolmes archaeological complex is not only the Eshkiolmes ridge itself, but also nearby clusters of drawings, settlements, burial grounds. They are directly connected with Eshkiolmes, because in all the clusters that we found, there are well-recognized all over the world drawings of Eshkiolmes style. Only our officials don’t know about it.”

In general, as the executive director of the Petroglyph Hunters tells us, there are a huge number of unfixed archaeological sites on both banks of the Koksu. Some of these monuments, including those previously identified, have already been destroyed during the construction of the hydroelectric power station.

“Verkhne-Talaptinskaya HPP underwent an archaeological examination. But it turned out that the examination was done only on a piece of the site. The rest of the territory of the Verkhne-Talptinskaya HPP, where construction is underway and the reservoir will be built, has not been surveyed at all. Social activists sent us photos of clusters of petroglyphs with large slabs at the Verkhne-Talaptinskaya HPP, settlements, burial ground. It’s all destroyed! At Rudnichnaya HPP-1, together with an employee of the Institute of Archeology and the Center for Historical and Cultural Heritage of the Zhetysu region, we managed to find several preserved burial mounds. Hangers were put there, it was fixed. But when six months later Alexander Goryachev from the Institute of Archaeology came there to do an archaeological examination, there were no mounds,” Olga Gumirova said.

We asked the Zhetysu Historical and Cultural Heritage Center to comment on this information. They answered us like this: everything that the scientists of the Margulan Institute found, they investigated.

As for the Verkhne-Talaptinskaya HPP, Gumirova worries that other monuments located in the immediate vicinity of the future power plant will be destroyed. By the way, they are there — the Orda journalist.kz saw them.

“In addition to large clusters of petroglyphs that are important for the whole world, there are also monuments that are important for the local population. In particular, the graves of batyrs — Jaimak batyr and Mainak batyr. And they also fall under destruction. That is, the batyrs defended this land at one time, and at best their bones will be dug up and transferred somewhere. And in the worst case, they will just drive a bulldozer and, like at the Rudnichnaya HPP, it will all be destroyed,” says Olga Gumirova.

According to Alexander Kolotov, director of the Rivers Without Boundaries Public Foundation, the wrong approach was initially chosen during the construction of the Koksu hydroelectric power station.

“A cascade of seven hydroelectric power stations on one river automatically assumes the receipt of the first category of danger and the mandatory passage of all examinations and large-scale public hearings. But the project was cut into pieces, and each of the hydroelectric power stations became an object with little impact on the environment and the historical and cultural sphere. They automatically received the third category of danger, which indicated a minor impact. With it, even an environmental assessment is optional,” Kolotov says.

The roots of all this are in 2019, when, on the initiative and with the support of USAID, auctions for renewable energy sources began to be held in Kazakhstan. Their essence is that within 10-15 years the state undertakes to buy electricity from renewable energy power plants at fixed tariffs, which are indexed annually. The category of renewable energy power plants, along with solar and wind, also included small hydroelectric power plants.

“This was done with good intentions — to stimulate the renewable energy market. But in the end, with small hydroelectric power plants, it turned out that at none of the stages there is not a single environmental criterion that would screen out projects. The preliminary level is the level of akimats, which select sites where there may be a hydroelectric power station. And none of these sites has been assessed in terms of environmental impact,” says the social activist.

According to Kolotov, they applied to the Ministry of Energy with a proposal to include environmental requirements in the auction rules, but they were told that this could reduce investment attractiveness.

At the disposal of the editorial board there is an answer to another request of “Rivers without boundaries” to the Ministry of Energy, which directly related to the cascade of HPPs at Koksu. It says that the commissioning date for all of them is 2029. Including the Verkhne-Talaptinskaya HPP.

And representatives of the developer in January generally stated that the HPP would be launched in the spring of 2025. Journalist Orda.kz I asked the press service of the regional akimat Zhetysu to comment on this information, and they replied that the information about the transfer was incorrect.

Igor Ulitin (Orda.kz )

Original (in Russian): Проекты ГЭС на реке Коксу угрожают могилам батыров