Spontaneous landfills are on the increase in the city of Almaty. This is evidenced by satellite pictures. For example, this pit on the outskirts of Nauryzbai district originally served as a quarry for the extraction of a building stone. But as soon as it stopped working, unknown persons turned it into an illegal landfill for household waste.
“The distance between the quarry and the houses is only a few meters. It should be 1,000 meters in accordance with the building code. Residents complain about smells, and there is a great danger of houses crumbling,” said Saltanat Tashimova, chairperson of “Protect Almaty” Public Association.
There are several such landfills for household and construction waste in the city. Nine illegal dumps were found by the space monitoring service in Medeu district.
“They dig the pit and just take the waste, including organics, which is prohibited and unacceptable at all. Subsequently, the soil and groundwater are polluted. Naturally, there is also an influence on the atmospheric air,” said Miras Baiseitov, Acting CEO, “Kazecology” Republican Research-Production and Information Center.
According to the state waste cadaster, at the beginning of 2021, 16.3 million tonnes of debris were accumulated in Kazakhstan, not counting waste in spontaneous landfills. Experts are confident that the issue will be resolved only with systematic work within the new Environmental Code, since employees of relevant departments will be able to receive precise figures for each region for all types of waste.
Translation by Saniya Sakenova
Editing by Galiya Khassenkhanova
