We have stepped into the new millennium and, looking back at the past, we can say with confidence that in many ways civilization has made a huge step in development. However, along with the greatest achievements, humanity was faced with global environmental problems, which were largely due to the active development of heavy industry, etc.
One of the countries that has fully experienced the depressing effect of a damaged ecology is Kazakhstan, which today has a vulnerable natural environment. The territory of this republic is mainly occupied by steppes, deserts and semi-deserts. Inland continental seas exist in Kazakhstan: the Aral, Caspian, Balkhash, Alakol, Zaysan.
The ecology of Kazakhstan is in a catastrophic situation and is one of the most sensitive topics in this country. The anthropogenic pressures experienced by this republic deprive nature of all forces and violate the natural ability of the environment to regenerate itself.
The extensive development of agriculture leads to land degradation and the impoverishment of landscapes. Sixty percent of the total area of the Republic of Kazakhstan is severely deserted, which, in turn, reduces soil fertility and reduces the productivity of crop production and animal husbandry.
Irrational use of natural resources and the development of irrigated agriculture led to a shortage of water in the basins of small and large rivers in the south of Kazakhstan: Ili, Syr Darya and others. Over a ten-year period, the area of the Aral Sea has almost halved. The same fate awaits Lake Balkhash if urgent measures are not taken.
Kazakhstan takes the last place in the CIS in providing clean fresh water for the residents of the republic. That is, in the country it is sorely lacking.
The environmental problems of Kazakhstan are compounded by the fact that the surface of the reservoirs is contaminated. They emit about two hundred million cubic meters of dirty wastewater. About three thousand foci infecting groundwater have been identified, the area of which is several hundred square kilometers.
The environmental problem, such as air pollution, is mainly due to the fact that a large number of enterprises, factories of this republic, especially processing and energy profiles, have an outdated and imperfect technology for cleaning and filtering. This contributes to an increase in the amount of hazardous emissions.
The environmental problems of Kazakhstan are most clearly manifested precisely where a large number of people live. It is noted that in the Karaganda and Pavlodar regions per inhabitant in the early to mid-nineties accounted for 10.5 tons of toxic emissions. Six million pollutants enter the air annually, half of which is “provided” by the power system. Harmful waste also comes from the production of ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, chemistry and petrochemicals.
Environmental problems of Kazakhstan may affect the Caspian Sea and Aktau. The giant plants of the industry of the Caspian mining and metallurgical enterprise dumped polluted water into a basin located near the city of Aktau. In that place, the man-made lake Koshkar-Ata was formed, which contains a whole periodic table of toxic and radioactive compounds. The river Koshkar-Ata and the Caspian Sea are separated by a small coastal strip with a length of about eight kilometers, so there is the possibility of contamination of the Caspian Sea with the waters of a man-made reservoir. This reservoir is also dangerous because it periodically dries up and the plant stops emissions. Dust from toxic compounds forms.
Mining complexes undermine the state of ecology in Kazakhstan. As a result of their activities, about twenty billion tons of waste and 230 tons of radioactive metals accumulated in the country. Most toxic waste is disposed of in unsuitable places for storage. In the late nineties - the beginning of the twenty-first century, their education grew from 92 to 150 million. They are concentrated in the Karaganda, East Kazakhstan, Pavlodar and Kostanay regions.
Unfortunately, it is the environmental problems of Kazakhstan that are the main reason why the country's population is at high risk of cancer.