The Town of the XXI Century
Series of reports on ecological situation in Central Asia

THE BORROWED PLANET

EXPANSION OF DESERTS AND UNEMPLOYMENT:THE MODERN REALITIES

The current situation in Kazakhstan is characterized by a crisis caused by the change of economic systems and by the unfavorable ecological situation. This has led to a significant decrease of the overall people's standards of living, and, especially, of standards of living in the ecologically disadvantageous regions.

The fact that Aral Sea is drying out has led to the decrease in the amount of fish caught from the Sea and this has resulted in closures of the factories depending on the supply of fish caught from the sea. Consequently people who were working on those factories are loosing their jobs.

So, in 1995 in Kyzyl-Orda region more than 16 thousand people lost their jobs, 12 thousand of them - people living in rural areas. 11,3 thousand people were on forced vacations because of complete or partial closures of their factories. Every fifth family (more than 100 thousand people) has suffered from unemployment in the region. Years ago in Aral sea region there were 13 thousand fishing artels, there was a shipyard in Aralsk and a fisher repair shop in the prot of Uch-Sai. When Aral Sea started to move back from its original shores, more than 10 thousand people found themselves at risk of unemployment, and this, considering that the average family in the region consists of 5 people, meant that about 50 thousand people were almost left without any income.

All this leads to the decrease in incomes of the people and to lower consumption of food products. Consumption of meat and animal fats is much lower than the established medical norms, consequently the largest part of the population living in the desert zone is suffering from vitamin and albumen starvation. For example, in 1995 in Kyzyl-Orda region per capita production of meat was 40 kg, milk - 85 kg, eggs - 29, while the medical norms are, respectively, 78, 352 and 220.

To find a better deal people are migrating from the region. A new type of migrants appears - ecological refugees. Hundreds of people annually leave the areas where deserts are expanding. So, in 1994 more than 298 thousand people moved out of the regions located in the desert zone. The level of migration is especially high from the regions of ecological disasters. 20080 people moved out of Kyzyl-Orda region in 1994. The largest portion of migrants from this region moves to Almaty and southern regions of Kazakhstan. In connection with that, in Almaty and southern regions of the Republic the situation with availability of work places and unemployment gets worse every year

The increase in the level of Caspian Sea has led to the fact that 17 towns and villages have been covered by water. Fertile lands serving as pastures and grasslands were covered by water and people were left without their work places and sources of income. In Atyrau region there is a collective farm - Algabaskii - which has been specilizing on growing bulls. The raising sea covered the lands of the collective farm by a thick layer of water and 2,5 thousand people lost their jobs. A 50% decrease in the number of sheep grown by the farm left more than one thousand families of farmers without any opportunities to find a new job.

Low standards of living, insufficient food supply, insufficient level of medical services, unusable water, salt and dust storms - results of the destroyed ecological balance and degrading living conditions - have led to the drastic fall in health conditions of people, shortened life expectancies, and limited birth rates, which is the first sign of extinction of the people from this region.

Worsening living conditions, death of the green "belts" around towns and cities, destroyed transportation links, lower levels of electric power consumption, lower demand for communication services, irregular supply of gas and fuel, all these factors have a very significant negative impact on living conditions.

Deteriorating ecological situation, resulting from expansion of deserts, finds a reflection in health conditions of the people. Disadvantageous ecological situation influences people both directly and indirectly. In this case the rates of illnesses and death rates serve as indicators of the processes, which are taking place in the surrounding environment.

Statistical data shows that regions affected by high degrees of expansion of deserts are in many ways different from other regions of Kazakhstan.

One of the reasons for the majority of illnesses - poor quality of drinking water. Exhausted water resources and limited water supply in the rivers have decreased the self-cleaning properties of the bodies of water. For example, near Kyzyl-Orda the concentration of mineral salts has increased by 2,7 times, sulphates - by 3,4 times, ammonium - by 20 times, nitrates - by 8,5 times; absorbed poisonous chemicals were found in the water, the level of bacteriologic pollution has increased. From Uzbekistan the waters of Syrdaria carry industrial sewage of more than 50 plants and factories. The same situation is common for other rivers.

Lower fertility of soils, degradation of pastures have caused a drop in production of food. People stopped eating fish, consumption of meat and dairy products has been greatly reduced. However, to completely understand the reasons for degradation of health conditions of the people, we also need to take into consideration the facts of often salt and dust storms, lower level of health care services, lack of medicines, constantly reduced numbers of available work places, high numbers of children per family, especially among representatives of the indigenous population.

For example, in Atyrau, Mangistau, Kyzyl-Orda, Almaty and Taldy-Korgan regions people have various kinds of diseases more often than in other regions. In comparison with, let's say 1994, now more people suffer from diseases of digesting organs (298% more adults than in 1994), for children this figure is 412%; from gastric ulcers - 558%; from skin and under skin cells diseases - 229%, blood diseases - 264%; ferric deficit anemia - 310%. People living in the desert zone have significant malfunctions of the blood development process and immune system.

In Aral Sea region there is a natural center of fever, high probability of hepathitus. The highest level of blood circulation system diseases is found in the epicenter of the Aral crisis - Kyzyl-Orda region. High levels of these diseases can also be found in the Caspian Sea region, South Kazakhstan and Almaty regions.

Cancer-related diseases are also wide spread among people living in the zone of deserts.

Regions affected by the expansion of deserts are also well-known because of the high death rates, especially among children. In 1995 the death rate among children was (per 1000 newborn) 35 - in Mangistau region, 34 - in Djambul region, 31 - in Kyzyl-Orda region, 28 - in Atyrau region. Children are left behind their peers in terms of physical development, they suffer from psychiatric disorders, anemia, blood-related diseases.