A Kazakh man filmed mountains of garbage on one of the rivers in the Almaty region. To get a response from departments on the situation, we sent official requests to the regional akimat and the Ministry of Environment, for more details – to Tengri Life.
A resident of Almaty went on a short trip, during which he noticed mountains of garbage on the river. He sent us a video and asked us to look into the situation.
“The Vesnovka River. It’s so clean. There’s garbage lying around everywhere. Unfortunately, this is becoming a common story. Here is our favorite plastic, which we use endlessly. Do you see how much?” – he noted in his video.
The scale of the garbage is amazing; here you can see plastic bottles, cans, old children’s toys and much more.
To understand the situation, we sent an official request to Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources. The letter also indicated the coordinates of the location.
“On October 15, the Department of Ecology for the Almaty region, together with employees of the akim’s office of the Ili district, carried out a visit to the locations specified in the request where unauthorized waste storage facilities were installed. The collected materials were transferred to the police department of the Ili district to take appropriate measures,” the Ministry reported.
The department also clarified that in in accordance with Part 2 of Article 344 of the Code “On Administrative Offences”, storing waste outside specially established places not intended for its accumulation entails a fine for individuals – 50 MCI (about 185 thousand tenge), officials, small businesses or non-profit organizations – 100 MCI (approximately 369 thousand tenge), for medium-sized businesses – one hundred percent, for large businesses – in the amount of two hundred percent of the amount of economic benefit received as a result of the violation.
In addition, our request was answered in Department of Energy and Housing and Communal Services of Almaty Region.
“According to the national company “Kazakhstan Gharysh Sapary”, as of September 25, 2024, space monitoring in the Almaty region identified 211 unauthorized landfills, of which 152 landfills have not been liquidated. To date, work to eliminate these landfills continues. The spontaneous landfill specified in the appeal will be eliminated as soon as possible,” the department’s response says.
We have clarified whether there are plans to install cameras near the natural site. We were promised to look into this issue.
“Regarding CCTV cameras, we inform you that the possibility of installing CCTV cameras will be considered,” the regional department reported.
Unfortunately, the issue of spontaneous landfills in our country is quite acute. For example, in September 2024, we talked about how Lake Kolsai was cleaned up. Then the specialists made 24 underwater dives with a total duration of 27 hours. As a result More than 30 bags of garbage were collectedincluding glass and plastic bottles, wet (non-degradable) wipes, aluminum cans. More details – here.
