Kazakhstan government to discuss ecological situation of industrial cities

Kazakhstan government will hold a meeting on the ecological situation of the industrial cities of Kazakhstan, Tengrinews.kz reports citing first Deputy Prime-Minister Serik Akhmetov. “We will hold the meeting in one of the single-industry cities, e.g. Ust-Kamenogorsk, in the coming month or two. Pollution is a serious problem in Ust-Kamenogorsk and not only there. When the wind blows from such city's industrial area, the whole city gets covered with a large cloud. If there is no wind in Astana or other cities, they immediately become enveloped in an artificial fog. That’s why we will closely review the ecological situation in such industrial cities and look into the environmental protection measures of the major producing companies. It is important that the companies carefully prepare and duly implement their environmental measures,” Akhmetov said at the extended board meeting of the Environmental Protection Ministry on January 30. First Deputy Prime-Minister expressed regret that top managers of Kazakhstan’s major companies were not invited to the board meeting of the Ministry. “During the last extended government meeting the President instructed us to toughen our approach to the direct method of compensation of harm that uses certain measures on restoration of environment at the cost of the violators. This is a serious message to our industrial companies and those polluting our environment,” he said. Serik Akhmetov reminded that in his recent State-of-the-Union Address the President instructed to develop an integral program for development of single-industry towns and the Ministry of Environmental Protection would play an important role in this development. Serik Akhmetov was put in charge of environmental issues when duties were distributed among the new Vice Prime-Ministers.