Essay

Environmental issues in Kazakhstan

Introduction
Kazakhstan still has a problem with the environment, and the discussions can be
highly continuous. In this essay, it will be reasonable to focus on a more specific
problem of air pollution. Combustion of fuel and coal releases hydrocarbons, which also
become toxic and harmful. The quality of fuels is important to factor in atmospheric
pollution to affect the composition and amount of toxic exhaust gasses emitted (2). The
pollutants are analyzed based on “the hydrocarbon composition; namely, the content of
benzenes, aromatic hydrocarbons, and olefins” (2). “When gasoline is burned in the ICE
of vehicles, the main toxic components are carbon monoxide, unburned light
hydrocarbons, soot, sulfur and nitrogen oxides” (2), so the proposed catalytic
technology mainly deals with the mitigating spread of toxic compounds. Human
activities started to create some trends, as the “most dangerous concentration of CO in
urban air is in the evening and night hours, when even daily averages on some days
exceed the MPC several times” (1). Here some harmful accumulations and emissions
converge in a more urban areas and higher human traffic.

Government intervention/programs
The government provides ticket passes in busses for children under 18,
pensioners, mothers with 4 or more children, and other socially vulnerable groups, so
the demand is somehow lowered. All micro districts have public schools, and children
are encouraged to go to the nearest public school. This strategy is more essential for
the 1-4 grade-schoolers from families with a limited budget, so they will not need to use
any vehicle frequently to arrive at school. In general, improved proximity of essential
services and branches somehow mitigate the issue with road traffic and fuel emission,
but at the same time, it needs financial consideration.
Plan of action on how to remediate the pollution problem
One solution supporting public transport is to keep the lower number of vehicles
on the roads, and the government should not highly reduce the traffic of the public
transportation. Another factor of keeping lower demand for fuel is the support of delivery

1
services, as those services collect the orders and once simultaneously go to several
destinations. The first 2 suggestions are more incentive and economic. The next
suggestions are more scientific and technological. “The development of catalytic
technology for decreasing aromatics (hydrodearomatization) in fuel fractions of oils and
fuels will improve the operational properties of domestic types of gasoline, and the
environmental situation in Kazakhstan (cleaning the air basin)” (2). Modification of
catalytic technology offers a highly permissible way of reducing the harmful impact of
released toxic compounds. This idea might need government subsidies to become real,
as it means probable production costs. The new information technologies and the
modern software products of mathematical simulation of processes in reacting media
can solve this environmental problem (1). Another technological advancement has the
potential to predict the consequences based on simulations lowering health risks for
alive organisms. So, technological modelling and adjustment of content of materials are
viable options for any positive changes.

References

(1) Аskarova, А.; Bolegenova, S.; Маximov, V.; Bekmukhamet, A.; Gabitova, Z.;
Beketayeva, М. Control of Harmful Emissions Concentration into the
Atmosphere of Megacities of Kazakhstan Republic. IERI Procedia 2014, 10,
252–258. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ieri.2014.09.085.

(2) Massenova, A.; Kalykberdiyev, M.; Sass, A.; Kenzin, N.; Ussenov, A.; Baiken,
A.; Rakhmetova, K. Catalytic Technologies for Solving Environmental
Problems in the Production of Fuels and Motor Transport in Kazakhstan.
Catalysts 2020, 10 (10), 1197. https://doi.org/10.3390/catal10101197.