Air Quality in Ekibastuz Has Significantly Improved in Recent Years

In the city of Ekibastuz, home to Kazakhstan’s largest thermal power plant, GRES-1, as well as the world’s largest coal mine, “Bogatyr,” and other industrial enterprises, the air has become noticeably cleaner. In 8 out of the past 10 years, the city has maintained a low level of air pollution. Only in 2015 was the pollution level rated as elevated, and in 2018 as high.

 Ekibastuz is located in the western part of Pavlodar Region, in the northern area of the Kazakh Uplands, and has a sharply continental climate. The city’s population is around 130,000 people.

The main industry in Ekibastuz is coal mining, represented by companies such as Bogatyr Komir LLP, Vostochny Open-Pit Mine (Eurasian Energy Corporation JSC), Maikuben-West LLP, and Gamma LLP.

The city is also a major center for the power industry, with large power plants such as GRES-1, GRES-2, and the Ekibastuz CHP.

In addition, Ekibastuz hosts enterprises in mechanical engineering, metal processing, construction materials production, and ferroalloy manufacturing. 

The high ash content of local coal and insufficient flue gas cleaning systems at local power plants lead to significant emissions of pollutants into the atmosphere. According to open data sources, these emissions account for 45.8% of total emissions in Pavlodar Region, with 94% originating from the two power plants.

 Air quality monitoring in Ekibastuz is conducted at 2 stationary posts:  

- at 1 post, manual air sampling is carried out three times a day for 4 indicators: 1) nitrogen dioxide, 2) sulfur dioxide, 3) nitric oxide, 4) carbon monoxide;

- at 1 automatic air monitoring station, data on the same 4 indicators are recorded every 20 minutes: 1) nitrogen dioxide, 2) sulfur dioxide, 3) nitric oxide, 4) carbon monoxide.

Air quality is assessed using the Air Pollution Index (API), which takes into account the concentrations of key pollutants and their impact on human health. It uses average daily or annual concentrations to determine the level of chronic air pollution.

According to data from Kazhydromet RSE, the Air Pollution Index in Ekibastuz was rated as elevated in 2015 (API 5.1), high in 2018 (API 7.2), and low during 2016–2017 and 2019–2024 (API 1.0–2.0).

At the same time, air monitoring recorded 41 cases of exceedances of the maximum permissible concentrations of harmful substances in 2023, and 247 cases in 2024. The majority of pollutants consisted of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and suspended particles (dust).

As previously reported, the Regional Ecological Summit is scheduled to be held in Astana from April 22 to 24, 2026, where the environmental challenges of the Central Asian countries and possible solutions will be discussed.