Volume of environmental pollution in Kazakhstan increased by 4%

    The volume of environmental pollution in Kazakhstan grew by 4% in 2016, Kazpravda.kz reports citing an analysis conducted by Ranking.kz.
    "After 3 years of reduction, the amount of pollutant emissions into the atmosphere in the Republic of Kazakhstan increased again, and in 2016 the total volume of emissions was 2.3 million tons, 4.2% more than in 2015. This growth has practically neutralized the efforts of the state and business to reduce the level of environmental pollution achieved in the previous three years. Fr om 2013 to 2015, the volume of harmful emissions into the atmosphere decreased by 8.6%," the survey notes.
    The growth of emissions of pollutants last year was observed with a simultaneous increase in the maximum permissible pollution standards. In 2016, the state established a pollutant emission lim it of 4.7 million tons. The maximum pollution standards increased immediately by 13.6% compared to the level for 2015.
    Thus, organizations that pollute the environment in Kazakhstan have developed only 48.8% of the standards against 53.2% in 2015.
    The most significant increase in atmospheric pollution is in the Atyrau region - in 2016, the volume of emissions increased by 56.4 thousand tons, or 50.9%. In total, the region accounts for 7.4% of all harmful emissions in the Republic of Kazakhstan.
    On the other hand, the greatest progress in reducing emissions over the past year was achieved in the Pavlodar region - minus 10.1 thousand tons, or 1.8%. As a result, the region accounts for 23.9% of all harmful emissions in the RK against 25.4% in 2015.
    The most difficult situation with the state of the environment among the regions of the Republic of Kazakhstan is in the Karaganda region - in 2016 about 593 thousand tons of pollutants were emitted into the atmosphere, or 26.1% of the total volume in Kazakhstan. However, in 2016, the volume of emissions decreased slightly - by 3.3 thousand tons, or by 0.6%.
    Reported by the Kazakhstanskaya Pravda.