Tag Archives: health

The Caspian Sea is shrinking, warn scientists

ALMATY/DEC. 23 2020 (The Bulletin) — The Caspian Sea, which provides a livelihood for thousands of people and acts as a fulcrum for international transit routes through the Central Asia and South Caucasus region, is shrinking, new scientific research showed (Dec. 23).

The report produced by universities in Germany and the Netherlands said that the Caspian Sea could lose up to a third of its water by 2100, with water level dropping by 18m, marooning previously important ports hundreds of kilometres inland.

The report’s authors said they wanted to use the threat to the Caspian Sea to highlight the dangers of global warming to inland seas and lakes.

“A massive warning signal is the projected catastrophic drop in water levels for the Caspian Sea, the largest lake in the world, which could hit stakeholders unprepared,” the report said.

Previous studies have warned that the Caspian Sea has been shrinking since the 1990s but not this quickly.

Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran and Azerbaijan border the Caspian Sea, which lies at the centre of a series of transport corridors that ultimately connect East Asia with Europe.

The Caspian Sea also hosts the region’s oil and gas industry and is a wildlife reserve, supporting seals, and migratory birds. The report showed how vast areas of the northern section of the Caspian Sea could dry up, with Atyrau in Kazakhstan effectively being stranded hundreds of kilometres from the shore.

Central Asia’s reputation for ecological disasters is already secure with the shrinking of the Aral Sea, which is shared by Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. It shrank in the 1960s and 1970s to half its original size because of Soviet schemes to siphon off its tributaries to irrigate cotton fields.

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— This story was first published in issue 467 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Kazakhtan begins production of Russian Covid vaccine

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DEC. 21 2020 (The Bulletin) — Kazakhstan has started production of Sputnik-V, the Russian vaccine for Covid-19, Russian officials said. This could mean that Kazakhstan, and other countries in Central Asia, will receive batches of the vaccine more quickly. Media reports said that the first batch of the vaccine had been sent off to Russia for quality checks.

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— This story was first published in issue 467 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Oil companies close Ashgabat offices on coronavirus fears

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JULY 29 (The Bulletin) — Petronas, the Malaysian oil and gas company, closed its office in Ashgabat after 10 of its employees tested positive for the coronavirus.

The closure is perhaps the strongest indication yet that despite the insistence of Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov that Turkmenistan had escaped the pandemic, coronavirus has infiltrated the country.

Turkmen media has also reported that Chinese state-owned China National Petroleum Company has also closed its office Ashgabat. Since a visit by the World Health Organisation (WHO) this month, masks have become commonplace in Turkmenistan and some shopping centres and bazaars have been closed.

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— This story was published in issue 455 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on July 31 2020.

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

EBRD starts cleaning up toxic Soviet mines in Kyrgyzstan

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JULY 29 (The Bulletin) — The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said that work to clean up a toxic Soviet uranium mine in south Kyrgyzstan had begun. Poisonous legacy pits and disused mines dot the region and the EBRD is funding work to clean them up. This project is focused on Shekaftar, near Jalal-Abad, where the USSR worked a uranium mine until 1968. The disused mine is still radioactive.

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— This story was published in issue 455 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on July 31 2020.

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Azerbaijani authorities warn of coronavirus second wave

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JUNE 21 (The Bulletin) — The authorities in Azerbaijan said that they may be dealing with a second wave of coronavirus infections after a spike forced the reintroduction of lockdown restrictions for two weeks. People have been told to stay at home, once again, and only leave after receiving permission from the authorities via SMS. Azerbaijan has recorded 14,305 coronavirus cases and 174 deaths.

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— This story was first published in issue 451 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, published on June 23 2020

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Turkmenistan denies US accusations of coronavirus cover-up

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JUNE 23 (The Bulletin) — Officials in Turkmenistan poured scorn on a statement by the US embassy in Ashgabat that questioned whether the country really had been able to remain free of the coronavirus. The Turkmen government has insisted that it is one of the only countries in the world not to have the coronavirus but US diplomats have said that they have received reports of people suffering from symptoms consistent with Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

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— This story was first published in issue 451 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, published on June 23 2020

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Uzbek police reimpose coronavirus lockdown in parts of Tashkent

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JUNE 22 (The Bulletin) — Police in Tashkent erected roadblocks around a suburbs where spikes in people infected with the coronavirus have been recorded. The authorities have lifted coronavirus lockdown restrictions but have also said that 71 neighbourhoods of Tashkent are considered to be so-called ‘Red Zones’. Uzbekistan has recorded 6,901 coronavirus cases and 19 deaths.

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— This story was first published in issue 451 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, published on June 23 2020

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Nazarbayec tests positive for the coronavirus

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JUNE 20 (The Bulletin) — Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan’s 79-year-old former president, tested positive for the coronavirus but officials said he was asymptomatic. The Kazakh authorities have announced weekend lockdowns in major cities to try to suppress a rise in infections since lockdown measures were relaxed.

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— This story was first published in issue 451 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, published on June 23 2020

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Coronavirus spreads throughout Kazakhstan

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APRIL 5 (The Bulletin) — Officials in Kazakhstan said that there were now 569 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the country and that five people had died with the COVID-19 disease. The government has called up thousands of reservists to help fight the spread of the COVID-19 disease, caused by the coronavirus, by enforcing lockdowns across the country and manning roadblocks.

Previously only Nur-Sultan and Almaty had been placed under a lockdown but now all businesses in all towns and cities have been ordered to close. The lockdown only allows people out of their homes every other day. In a televised address to the nation, Kazakh President Kassym Jomart Tokayev described medical workers as “life-saving heroes” and promised to give them salary rises. Critics of the government have said that the underfunded Kazakh health system will struggle to cope with an influx of patients with COVID-19.

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— This story was first published in issue 441 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Coronavirus spreads through Central Asia and South Caucasus

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YEREVAN/March 26 (The Bulletin) — The Covid-19 virus started to take a grip of the Central Asia and South Caucasus region with only Tajikistan and Turkmenistan not reporting any outbreaks.

Worst hit, by some margin, has been Armenia with 290 cases reported by March 26. Officials said that the source of the outbreak was a sewing factory in Yerevan and people arriving from Iran, which has had one of the worst outbreaks in the world.

From sounding blase about the impact of the coronavirus only two weeks ago, Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan has now ordered a lockdown along the same lines as European countries, which is hitting businesses.

“Let’s look at the upcoming week as a unique opportunity to read, self-reflect and plan the future of the Armenian nation,” he said.

Neighbouring Georgia and Azerbaijan have also reported cases of the coronavirus, 77 cases and 80 cases each, but have taken different approaches to dealing with it. The Georgian government has imposed a lockdown in Tbilisi but in Azerbaijan the rules are more relaxed.

In Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan have imposed lockdowns over their largest cities to try to contain the spread of the coronavirus, although Turkmen and Tajik officials have insisted, much to the amazement of many analysts, that they haven’t had any cases.

On March 21, Tajik towns hosted the traditional celebrations to mark the Persian new year Nowruz festival and Turkmen leader Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has talked up the medicinal benefits of various herbs against the coronavirus.

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— This story was first published in issue 440 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin