BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 22. Within the framework of the project "Strengthening the Capacity for Air Quality Management in Central Asia", Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan are enhancing cooperation to tackle air pollution, MoveGreen - an environmental organization in Kyrgyzstan told TurkicWorld.
MoveGreen, involved in the sustainable development of Kyrgyzstan, in partnership with the Association of Practicing Ecologists of Kazakhstan and AirKaz is currently taking steps to improve air quality in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
"With the support of our partners from Kazakhstan, MoveGreen is working to improve the regulatory mechanisms for air quality monitoring in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Experts from the Association of Practicing Ecologists of Kazakhstan have developed a number of recommendations to improve the air quality monitoring system in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Recommendations for Kazakhstan were presented in 2022. Discussion and presentation of recommendations for Kyrgyzstan are scheduled for 2023," MoveGreen said.
As noted in the organization, as a result of assessing the current air monitoring system in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, it was found that air quality in the two countries does not meet the standards of the countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and are also underestimated compared to the recommendations of the World Health Organization.
"For air quality monitoring within the framework of this project, we mainly work with AirKaz sensors, which are developed and produced in Kazakhstan. These sensors have received certification in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, are undergoing the necessary technical verification, in addition, AirKaz sensor data is integrated into the data collection system of Kazhydromet," MoveGreen said.
As part of this project, MoveGreen was able to establish cooperation with Kazhydromet and install 20 AirKaz air quality monitoring sensors in 5 cities of Kazakhstan - Aktobe, Astana: Atyrau, Pavlodar and Uralsk. At the moment, together with partners, Movegreen is working on the installation of another 50 sensors.
"In Kyrgyzstan, we were able to install 28 AirKaz sensors and 5 Purple Air sensors in all regions of the country. Thus, thanks to this project, we were able not only to obtain data on air quality in the capital of Kyrgyzstan - Bishkek but also for the first time to learn about the state of air in other large cities," MoveGreen said.
Unfortunately, civil air quality monitoring data show a significant excess of the maximum allowable concentration of PM 2.5 not only in the central cities of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan but also in other cities of the two countries.
According to the MoverGreen organization, the peak of air pollution in Kyrgyzstan begins in the autumn-winter period, during the beginning of the heating season.
Remarkably, the project "Strengthening the Capacity for Air Quality Management in Central Asia" is being implemented with the financial support of the US State Department.
