KZBlog

Presidential candidate Mels Yeleusizov is calling for Kazakhs to save water. Especially in the south and west, lack of water is a serious problem, particularly potable and clean water. And for some reason conservation of water (or gas or anything else) doesn’t seem to have permeated the culture. On the other hand, the average citizen of Kazakhstan doesn’t consume anywhere near the amount of resources the average American does. So I’m not sure the solution is encouraging people to conserve so much as it is keeping businesses from polluting, negotiating with countries that live upstream from Kazakhstan’s water resources, and better infrastructure.

Just as a funny unrelated story, I was once shopping for water fixtures for my apartment, I think in a Kohler faucets outlet in Astana and a guy walked in and asked what the most expensive faucets they had were. The salesman directed him to elite model and without even looking the customer said, “OK, great. Give me three bathroom sets and a kitchen set.” So while resource conserving is better in Kazakhstan, conspicuous consumption among the upper-class is up to Western standards.