Shymkent Air Pollution Complaints Continue Despite Official Checks

Residents of Shymkent continue to complain about a sharp smell that appears mainly at night. After Orda.kz published a story on the issue, the city’s Ecology Department sent an official response and acknowledged that odor complaints remain one of Shymkent’s main environmental problems.

Residents most often complain about areas near PetroKazakhstan Oil Products LLP and enterprises in the Ontustik and Ordabasy industrial zones. However, nighttime air measurements have not shown any exceedance of maximum permissible concentrations. According to the department, similar results were recorded by the sanitary-epidemiological service and Kazhydromet.

Shymkent is already one of the cities with increased air pollution. Air quality is affected not only by factories, but also by vehicles, coal heating in the private sector, waste burning and weather conditions,the ecology officials said.

Since the beginning of the year, the department has received 29 complaints, and specialists have made 238 site visits. However, the complaints have not stopped. Last night, residents from several districts again wrote to Orda.kz about a strong smell of burnt rubber.

It was impossible to open the windows at night. There was a strong smell of burnt rubber. At first, we thought that wiring or a socket was burning at home. We checked everything and then called friends from another district. It turned out they had exactly the same smell,a Shymkent resident said.

Official checks have not found any exceedances so far, but residents continue to regularly report strong nighttime odors. What exactly causes them remains unclear.

At the end of June, Orda.kz reported that Shymkent residents had complained en masse about nighttime stench. Hundreds of people described a pungent smell of gas, chemicals, burnt rubber and plastic, as well as headaches, coughing, nausea and insomnia. Many said the problem had been going on for more than a year.

Residents of Atyrau, Pavlodar, Aktau, Temirtau, Semey, Konaev, Taraz, Aktobe, Oskemen and Almaty also joined the discussion, saying they periodically face similar smells.

Original author: Alexandra Kim

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