Kazakhstan pours funds into Caspian Sea research as shallowing threat grows

Kazakhstan has earmarked 305 million tenge (approximately US$560,000) from the government’s reserve fund to support the Kazakh Scientific Research Institute of the Caspian Sea, as part of efforts to address pressing environmental issues affecting the sea.

The decision was formalised in a decree signed by Prime Minister Olzhas Bektanov, according to the government’s official website.

The funding will go toward further development of the institute, enabling it to conduct timely and in-depth research in laboratories for hydrobiology, hydrochemistry, hydrometeorology, and satellite monitoring, along with other tasks set for the institution.

The institute was created on the instructions of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to comprehensively study the environmental challenges facing the Caspian Sea. Its mandate includes assessing fish stocks, developing conservation methods and technologies, studying ichthyofauna, investigating the causes of mass seal deaths and safeguarding their population.

The research also covers hydrological processes, sea-level monitoring, climate change impact analysis, and the collection and assessment of data on water quality, biodiversity, and other parameters of Kazakhstan’s section of the Caspian Sea and its coastline.

Prime Minister Bektanov, speaking in July at the first International Environmental Conference in Manzherok in Russia’s Altai Republic, identified the shallowing of the Caspian Sea as one of the region’s most critical environmental challenges.

The Caspian Sea, a unique ecosystem and a vital source of aquatic biological resources, plays a pivotal role in the sustainable development of Kazakhstan’s western regions and the country as a whole. Kazakhstan has the longest coastline among all Caspian littoral states, stretching 2,320 kilometres.

By Tamilla Hasanova