[Translation prepared by Business & Human Rights Resource Centre]

The Department of Ecology will check Teplokommunenergo at the request of the prosecutor's office, 14 October 2024

The Department of Ecology for the Abay region listed the sources of air pollution in Semey, reports the correspondent of Arnapress.kz.

Recall that in early October, city residents began to complain about the heavy smoke in the city. They wrote on social networks that the city seemed to be immersed in a smoke screen and that the smell was strongly felt in different areas. Some even began to publish the results of air pollution monitoring conducted through a special application, which showed that the norm was exceeded for some indicators...

The editorial staff of Arnapress.kz contacted the Department of Ecology for the Abay region for a comment. The department informed us that they are currently reviewing appeals regarding the environmental situation in the city, as well as demands from the prosecutor's office to conduct an inspection...

"Based on the results of the inspections, 98 violations of the environmental legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan were identified. 97 orders were issued to eliminate the violations, 68 of which were executed," the response said...

The response also said that air pollution in the Abay region is caused by emissions from mining, thermal power engineering, non-ferrous metallurgy and related industries of energy, mechanical engineering, construction industry and others.

"Large polluters of the environment in the Abay region are KAZ Minerals Aktogay LLP (KAZ Minerals Aktogay)...