The role of the private sector in sustainable water management in Kazakhstan

Abstract: The social and environmental impacts associated with corporate water use and discharge in Kazakhstan is historically high, and in certain watershed pose a significant threat to the health of the local communities and ecosystems. Today the industries are consuming almost a third of freshwater and remain one of the biggest polluters in the country. The situation is aggravated with the changing climatic conditions, economic and population growth. Thus, the possibilities to enhance the environmental responsibility of the private sector are appeared to be essential to achieve sustainable water management. Yet, it is not known, to which extent the private sector is involved in this process. Based on the identified gap in knowledge, this research focused on two goals, formulated as: 1) Define the level of engagement of the private sector in Kazakhstan in sustainable water management; 2) Document the driving forces and barriers that determined the current level of business engagement in the country. Research questions were built to correspond to the overarching research goal and were approached through the five case studies on the ‘water role’ of the private companies from fuel, mining and chemical industries in different regions of Kazakhstan; but also through a range of expert interviews and a literature review on relevant topics. The inductive research design also included the analysis of the collected data through the ‘codes’ or ‘parameters’ that reflect different aspects of the notion of sustainable water management: operations, watershed improvements; stakeholders; local community; water policy; and transparency. The qualitative analysis of collected data revealed the following main findings: the case study companies are to a larger extent involved in the activities imposed by the regulation, while less intensively employ the voluntary water stewardship mechanisms. Thus, the engagement at the operational level is limited by the intentions to comply with the regulation. While the ongoing changes in regulation are often perceived by the companies as a serious obstacle to including water issues in long-term strategies. A ‘somewhat weak’ involvement is a common characteristic, which can be applied to most of the other parameters. The variations in case studies were explained by different disclosure strategies, the physical scope of the impact and the need to interact with affected stakeholders; and level of international involvement (shareholders and listing on international exchanges stocks).