CENTRAL ASIA Central Asia choked by smog

After regrettable delays, the region’s governments are finally beginning to worry about environmental problems. In the last year, 112 people died in Bishkek as a result of the contamination. The population is forced to use all kinds of fuels to heat themselves. The protests multiply.

Moscow () – The governments of the Central Asian states are to blame for not having made decisions on time. Now they are beginning to worry about fossil fuel heating systems, outdated cars and poor urban planning, the main causes of the serious air pollution problems that today suffocate the citizens of local metropolises.

Coal-fired power plants and domestic stoves in major cities throughout Central Asia release an enormous amount of toxic by-products into the air. The icy roads are damaged by the slow movement of outdated vehicles whose tires are increasingly worn. Meanwhile, social networks are saturated with debates about the unbreathable atmosphere, and users exchange information about the purchase of air purifiers.

During the winter, from November to April, people use duct tape to close the destroyed windows and the problem risks becoming a real catastrophe.

In this region, the political will to combat air pollution has always been weak. However, the pressure of public opinion in the information technology era is already inescapable: the consequences for the health of citizens are evident. In the last month, Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, ranked first in the IQAir ranking (the ranking of cities with the worst air quality), closely followed by Almaty, the main city of Kazakhstan. In the Top-20 of the worst cities, Astana and Tashkent, the Kazakh and Uzbek capitals respectively, remain immovable.

Although the region is characterized by vast expanses of taiga, the blanket of smog is clearly visible, especially in aerial view images. On days with the highest concentration of toxic clouds, panic alternated with black humor spreads among the inhabitants. People take to Twitter to ask for opinions on the effectiveness of $1,000 air purifiers, asking if these devices “can clean the whole street.”

Ermes Izmailov is a doctor and lives in Bishkek. in dialogue with Azattyk, explains that more and more patients complain of migraines and respiratory problems: “In the flu season we see that the symptoms get worse and worse, the typical two-week cough now lasts more than a month.” An investigation financed by Unicef ​​affirms that in the last year in Bishkek 112 people died due to contamination. However, the government considers that the information is not reliable.

Problems of this kind were inherited from the Soviet era: medium-sized cities used to be the most polluted, due to the higher concentration of heavy industrial plants. Subsequently, population growth and the number of automobiles further aggravated the situation in urban areas – where once only the privileged and party functionaries circulated freely.

The towns scattered around the big cities are not connected to the gas network. To heat their homes and keep the stove burning, the inhabitants use all kinds of fuels, from coal to textile waste. On the other hand, in big cities, new 20-30 storey buildings multiply like mushrooms, and this blocks air circulation. Some governments, such as Kyrgyzstan’s, prefer to use dirtier and cheaper locally produced coal, rather than more expensive imported ones.

To all this, protests spread with street demonstrations in numerous cities, in Bishkek and Astana, a small steppe city that in ten years has gone from 20,000 to one million inhabitants and where only 5,000 of every 30,000 households have gas in their homes. . In the poorest countries, such as Turkmenistan and Tajikistan or even Kyrgyzstan, the transition to the use of cleaner energy is currently unfeasible. It is expected to achieve at least a partial substitution of coal for gas and electricity, with the hope that winter will pass soon.