The dam projects on Ugam River contradict four international conventions

Recently, at a meeting of the Investment Attraction Council, a project for the construction of a water pipeline with a cascade of hydroelectric power stations on the Ugam River in the Turkestan region of the Republic of Kazakhstan was approved. A number of environmental organizations have criticized these plans. Correspondent of the publication Ratel.kz talked about this with the head of the Ecological Society “Green Salvation” Sergey KURATOV:

— Sergey Georgievich, what is wrong with the history around the plans for the construction of water facilities on Ugam?

— The fact that they will be located on the territory of the national park. In 2016, the Sairam-Ugam National Natural Park was included in the UNESCO World Natural Heritage List as part of the Western Tien Shan transboundary site, which includes protected areas of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. It was encouraging.

But around 2021, an idea appeared to build a cascade of hydroelectric power plants and a conduit for energy supply and water supply to the inhabitants of the region on the territory of the natural park. A serious question involuntarily arises: and five years before that, when the application for inclusion of the object in the UNESCO list was considered, these needs were not known? How do our authorized agencies plan? Does the right hand not know what the left hand is doing? Moreover, we are talking about a cross-border facility, the change of which will affect the interests of neighboring countries.

The plans for the construction of a cascade of hydroelectric power plants and a water pipeline contradict four international treaties that were signed by Kazakhstan. These are the conventions on the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, on biological diversity, on environmental impact assessment in a transboundary context and the convention on the Protection and Use of transboundary watercourses and international lakes.

— When you talk about transboundary watercourses, do you mean that the source of the Ugam River is located in Kazakhstan?

—Yeah.” Ugam passes through the Sairam-Ugam National Park, crosses the boundary with Uzbekistan and flows into the Chirchik River.

A number of specialists and public organizations, the international coalition “Rivers without Boundaries”, our organization raise the issue of the inadmissibility of the construction of such facilities on the territory of the national park. The International Union for Conservation of Nature and the World Heritage Center were informed about this situation. Their experts came to Kazakhstan. While the official assessment has not been announced, but the attitude of experts to the construction plans is rather negative.

Unfortunately, we have to remind you again and again that, in accordance with the Constitution of Kazakhstan, international treaties take precedence over national laws. I’m not even talking about the fact that these are very important conventions, the observance of which is taken very seriously in the world. And I want to remind you that Kazakhstan has been included in the World Heritage Committee since 2023!

The way events are developing in the Sairam-Ugam National Park is explained by a number of reasons that have existed for many years. This is the absence of an environmental policy of the state, there is no clear idea of how to preserve and use specially protected natural areas. There is no understanding that they are a strategic resource of the state.

In our legislation, industrial and infrastructure facilities are considered such, but not water sources, glaciers, forests, or specially protected natural areas. Although it is they who provide the population with resources, without which not only development, but life is impossible. Now, in the context of the global environmental crisis, this has become especially obvious. Specially protected natural areas are exactly the resource and tool that can help mitigate climate change. And as sources of fresh water, which are especially important in the south and south-east of Kazakhstan, and as a repository of biodiversity, which is necessary for the sustainable development of agriculture, for afforestation and absorption of excess amounts of carbon dioxide. The issue of the strategic importance of water resources was raised by the President of Kazakhstan back in 2013, but it still hung in the air.

— If your opponents object that they will implement projects in the Sairam-Ugam National Park with the highest level of control, with minimal damage to the environment?

“That’s what they say. But, firstly, there are no construction, industrial projects, especially large-scale ones, that would not negatively affect the environment.

Secondly, according to the norms of those conventions that have been ratified by the Republic of Kazakhstan, such activities are prohibited in principle. Such activities also contradict national laws. Accordingly, it is possible to launch such projects only either bypassing the legislation, or changing the laws and adjusting them to the requirements of the business.

Here is a vivid example from the history of the same Sairam-Ugam National Park. A ski resort was created in the park. And in order to build it, two hundred and sixty hectares were withdrawn from the protected area of the park, in which any activity is prohibited except for regulated ecological tourism, and included in the zone of restricted economic activity. We jokingly call it the “zone of unlimited economic activity.” And so that the total area of the protected area does not change, two hundred and sixty hectares from the zone of restricted economic activity were transferred to the zone of the protected regime.

This is the same as if the museum exhibits were moved to the stable, and the horses were transferred to a building specially created for the museum.

All this demonstrates a clear tendency to soften our environmental legislation. The saddest thing is that this is happening against the background of official recognition of the fact that the country is experiencing “a serious deterioration in the state of natural resources and the environment in all the most important environmental indicators.”

Here are some more examples.

Nature protection areas are not included in Appendix 1 to the Environmental Code. This is a list of types of planned activities and facilities for which an environmental impact assessment is mandatory. And this is despite the fact that the international convention on impact assessment in a transboundary context explicitly requires this.

Further, there is no such thing as specially protected natural areas of international importance in Kazakhstan legislation. It is all the more strange that the concept of “monuments of international importance” is included in the law on the protection of monuments.

Finally, in the “Country Report on Climate and Development” prepared by the World Bank Group in 2022, it is noted that “the provisions of the Environmental Code are formulated vaguely and can be widely interpreted by ministries and departments, and the Ministry of Economic Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan does not have sufficient authority, resources and capacity to formulate and coordinate the implementation of policies and budgets.”

— Does the environmental community have any ways, tools to influence these processes?

— There are tools, but they work very poorly. The judicial practice of “Green Salvation” shows that it is difficult to win a case, but it is even more difficult to enforce a court decision. This suggests that access to justice in our country, to put it mildly, does not meet the norms of the Aarhus Convention.

Unfortunately, the situation, apparently, will only get worse. This is especially evident in the example of Almaty. The city is encroaching on the lands of the national park, smog is increasingly covering the city and the national park, the quality of water and recreational resources is decreasing. According to the latest official data, there is not a single water body in the city with first-class water quality. That is, one that can be used for any purpose without any cleaning.

This is despite the fact that glaciers lie literally next to Almaty, which recently supplied citizens with high-quality water from a reservoir on the Charyn River in the Almaty region of Kazakhstan.

Yaroslav Razumov (Ratel.kz )