Kazakhstan - a Huge Desert?

How would you like to find yourself in a desert? No, I am not talking of a safari or a sightseeing tour here, but how about settling down there? Unfortunately, it's no fantasy. Two thirds of Kazakhstanis live, or rather drag their miserable existence in deserts and semi-deserts. According to the information provided by the Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, deserts make up more than 179.9 million hectares or 60 percent of the country's territory.

A Planet of the Sands

One would normally associate desert with sand-hills, camel caravans, Bedouins charred under the scorching sun, and long-awaited paradise oases. The reality is much more boring, there is hardly anything romantic about it. The soil of Kazakhstani deserts or semi-deserts is stones, salts and clays incapable of thriving into an abundance of plants. Haloxylon alone can grow here, and lizards lead a free and undisturbed life. The land is not fertile, rains are scarce, and there are no rivers and lakes. Plus, well-to-do towns and villages are too far away.

There are a lot of such places in Kazakhstan. Up to 90 percent of Atyrau and Mangystau provinces is a desert as is up to 60-70 percent of West-Kazakhstan, Aktyubinsk, Kzylorda and South-Kazakhstan provinces. Desert territory is vast in Karaganda, Zhambyl, Almaty and East-Kazakhstan provinces as well.

Upon entering the third millennium, the world faces a problem of land deterioration, as well as a resulting decline of the mankind. Today a continental strip populated by over a billion people is under a risk of turning into a desert. This territory is bigger than Africa. The said is merely a sad result of a barbarian attitude towards the land. Every year Kazakhstan loses a billion dollars as a result of deserting and degradation of pasture. The cost of rehabilitating the pastures runs into roughly 10 billion dollars, which is beyond the state budget.

To Restrain the Nature

Treating the land scornfully is not a sole reason of its deserting. The experts claim the changes in natural conditions strongly influence the land deterioration in individual areas, as well as on a global scale. Global warming is another reason.

Is it sensible to dispute and challenge the Nature? Kazakhstani ecologists say yes, the global warming could and should be hindered. To do it we must reduce the greenhouse gases emission, formed when we spew the heating power into the atmosphere. Therefore, a scientific approach to control the greenhouse gases is vital.

People came to calling the deserted and semi-deserted steppes as "inconviniums", formally they are regarded as "the depressive areas", however more and more often you hear a disturbing word "reservation". Last August the "Zhas Alash" newspaper published an article by a Kzylorda Korkut State University professor Sr. Amangeldy Zhanbatyr. He writes, there are 71 reservations in Kazakhstan, and the state of 30 is awful.

Prisoners of "Reservations"

These days we are fond of discussing freedom and everyone's equality under our Constitution. Correct. Indeed, when necessary we are capable of standing up for our rights to labor, education, etc., but what about an absurd situation like this: what about those who are deprived of their rights to… water, fertile soil, air? Shall we blame Mother Nature?

The lands' deterioration goes hand in hand with the social decline. We reap this today. Reservation inhabitants are on their own with the cruelty of Nature. And not Nature alone.

The market wind of changes now blows in depressive areas, too; but opposite to big cities, people here only saw the market's cruel sides. A number of auls and villages have gone bankrupt, former production capacities declined fast, deteriorating ecology and a lack of funds ruined livestock breeding. Unpaid salaries, pension and social payment delays threw the depressive area people into poverty. People left their houses, lost everything just to head for "nowhere" in search of a better and dignified life. Within 1993-1998 a number of internal and inter-regional migration reached 1,100,000 people.

There are reservations in the world, though a word means not an autonomous settlement, but rather a legal status of a territory in Canada, U.S., Australia and others. What differs them from Kazakhstan is that these countries undertook certain measures to compensate the low living standards and unfavorable climatic conditions to the reservations' inhabitants. In the U.S. they receive donations from the district, state and the federal budget. Altogether these donations add up about 250-300 percent to their income.

No Water, No Land, No Status

There have been attempts to solve the desert and semi-desert areas' population problem in Kazakhstan. In 1989 71 of 205 country areas have been named declining. 30 of 71 have been referred to as the worst. Almost a billion rubles have been allotted in the budget, however the government said "A" but forgot to say "B".

A status of the depressive areas has not been determined yet. Sapabek Asiuly, Kazakhstan Writers Union "Land and People's Destiny" commission member, says the government should present a bill draft to the Parliament, under which 180 million hectares of deserts and semi-deserts shall be regarded as reservations. He says the government should press on the Parliament to pass the bill. Under the reservation status the population would get certain compensations and privileges. Besides, he believes it should be forbidden to sell and transfer the land into a private ownership, as this would be a final straw for the people who possess neither fertile soil, nor money. This opinion is shared by a number of national scientists. Shamil Mamilov, Ph.D. (biology) of the RK Ministry of Education and Agriculture Soil Research Institute believes that if we are keen on preserving the nature and restore agriculture, fertile lands should not be bought, sold or taxed like other market commodities. He says, farmers these days pay a land tax based on its speculative price, just like it's with the real estate tax. This is a major instrument to put a pressure on a farmer to sell his land or transfer it; and it is also often an obstruction for those who want to farm it. Private property, Mamilov believes, is a serious obstacle for the state ecology programs designed to rehabilitate the soil.

Experts say, it's about time the laws on land protection and depressive areas status were introduced in Kazakhstan, as well as amendments to the law "On Land" were made. Along with Russia, USA, Canada and Australia, Kazakhstan is one of the ten world countries possessing the largest land resources. And we are the first on this planet, as far as a land per capita ratio is concerned. Nonetheless, it seems Kazakhstan, unlike the developed countries, has not yet realized the land is a most valuable resource, and that it is vital for the economic prosperity and the people's welfare.