The provision of gas supply to private houses in Bishkek is considered an essential measure to improve the air quality. However, half of residents of the new gas supplied residential areas still use coal for heating. According to experts, the success of the programme depends on the mass switching to gas. Otherwise, the situation will not improve.
The Kyrgyz capital is regularly ranked among the top five cities with the most polluted air in the world during the wintertime heating period. Annual mean PM2.5 levels in the city by far exceed all national and international guidelines.
The main source of air pollution is heating of homes by coal.
According to Ministry of Natural Resources, Ecology and Technical Supervision, almost 30 per cent of pollution is caused by coal. Private houses of Bishkek burn around 200 thousand tonnes of coal during one heating season. Moreover, the annual coal demand of the powerplant reaches 1.5 million tonnes, which contributes to the air pollution at the rate of 11 per cent.
43 residential areas of Bishkek have been supplied with gas
Authorities consider gas supply as the key solution to reduce pollution caused by furnace heating in Bishkek. In the years to come, all residential areas are planned to be provided by gas supply. There are 47 residential areas in the city, and 8 aiyl aimak have been added to the capital following the administrative division reform.
According to Gazprom Kyrgyzstan, gas supply has been provided to 43 districts of Bishkek and 12 villages in Chui region from 2014 to date.
“Last year, 12 residential areas and population centres were provided with gas supply in Bishkek and Chui region. This year, another large area, Novopokrovka village, is being supplied with gas. Also, design and survey works are coming to an end in Ak-Bosogo residential area, and afterwards they will start building gas pipelines. You might think these are just two facilities, yet these are big projects, which cover over 10 thousand households in total,” Gazprom said.
Half of residents in gas supplied residential areas are still heated by coal
Gas supply does not fix all the problems. It is important to consider how many households have been supplied with gas and how many of them use it for heating.
Kalisa Beishenalieva is the head of block No. 77 of Ak-Tilek residential area. This block has 200 houses, 50 houses of which have not still connected the gas for a variety of reasons: some houses belong to squatters and overlap with the road, which makes them ineligible for gas supply; some have no money to connect gas, others prefer coal as it is cheaper. Those who connected gas use it for heating in 90 per cent, while the rest have no money to install a gas furnace. Kalisa is one of them too.
“My husband has died recently. Currently, my financial situation does not let me install a gas furnace. So, now I use coal to heat the house. I have a loan already, so I cannot take out a special loan for this purpose,” the head of block said.
According to Gazprom Kyrgyzstan, there are over 50 thousand households in gas supplied residential areas. Around 70 per cent (37 thousand) have connected gas. Among those who connected gas, 70 per cent (25 thousand) use it for heating. Thus, we can come to conclusion that only half of residents in gas supplied residential areas have switched from coal to gas heating.
Kok-Zhar residential area. Photo: CABAR.asia
Nevertheless, according to authorities, the air pollution situation is getting better. According to Chyngyz Abdymalik uulu, representative of the ministry of natural resources, in the last heating season, gas supply allowed to reduce the use of coal by more than 63 thousand tonnes based on minimum estimates.
However, Inna Brusenskaya, expert in air quality of the ecological public organisation ‘MoveGreen’, believes that it requires almost the wide use of gas for significant improvement.
“For example, if only two houses switch to gas out of 10 houses in the area, and the remaining ones continue to use coal and garbage for heating, the air quality will not improve,” she said.
Soft loans expected to facilitate provision of gas supply were spent by 3.5 per cent
The reason behind the fact that half of the residents in gas supplied residential areas still use coal is substantial costs of connection of houses to gas pipeline. The cost of construction and installation works together with materials is around 20-30 thousand som. The amount depends on the distance between the house and the gas service pipe. Moreover, a gas boiler costs 50 thousand som. This is a racking sum for the majority as generally vulnerable population lives in new residential areas.
To facilitate the provision of gas supply, the cabinet of ministers launched the project “Soft Financing for Provision of Gas Supply in Bishkek and Chui Region” last year. State banks began to grant loans up to 150 thousand som (1,727 dollars) at 8 per cent annual interest rate. The cabinet of ministers will allocate 1 billion som (nearly 11.5 million dollars) for the implementation of this programme every year.
As state banks ‘Aiyl Bank’ and ‘Eldik Bank’ said to CABAR.asia, by the end of October, 174 loans in the amount of almost 35 million som (nearly 403 thousand dollars) were issued for the provision of gas supply. It amounts to as low as 3.5 per cent of the entire allocated sum.
“The loan terms and conditions are difficult,” a resident of Ak-Tilek residential area said on the condition of anonymity.
“Gas fitters told us about soft loans. But many people failed to obtain them. Some could not obtain the loan, others were turned down because of another existing loan, some were considered insolvent. Many residents were dissatisfied about this issue. We all know that ordinary people live in residential areas, not rich ones. They only have to revisit the loan conditions,” she said.
How much will it cost to use gas for heating during a season?
Another significant factor restraining the residents is the cost of gas heating during a season.
“Gas and supply infrastructure is the project that is implemented not the way it was expected to. The reason for such a slow switch is in higher costs during a season. Our sources emphasised that the comparison of the total costs per heating season discourages people from switching to gas heating today,” according to the report “The analysis of costs and benefits of gradual scaling-up of installation of energy efficient furnaces in the Kyrgyz Republic”.
Gazprom Kyrgyzstan has its own estimates. According to the company, the average cost of one tonne of coal is 6,500 som (75 dollars) today. Heating a house with 100 square metres in area requires 1.3 tonnes of coal a month, which finally costs almost 8,500 som (98 dollars). To heat the same house with gas requires around 400 cubic metres of gas per month, which costs nearly 8,500 som.
“Given the equal cost of heating, the natural gas has the following benefits: you don’t need to fire the coal and put it into the boiler, you don’t need to dispose of the ash, you don’t have coal dust and ash in the house and in the yard, you don’t have smog and a smell of burning around the house,” Gazprom said.
What to do?
The ecological public organisation ‘MoveGreen’ supports the efforts made to improve the air quality in Bishkek. However, it points out that the smog is a complex issue and needs to be addressed comprehensively by eliminating or minimising all sources of pollutant emission into the atmosphere.
“We are supporting faster and cheaper methods. Like house insulation, subsidising ‘clean furnaces’ and the use of renewable energy, which will reduce the air pollution significantly. According to the experts of Unison Group, up to 70 per cent of heat is lost through the roofs, basements, furnaces, walls, windows or doors. House insulation will allow to use up to 80 per cent less fuel, and therefore fewer pollutants will be released into the air,” said Inna Brusenskaya, expert in air quality of ‘MoveGreen’.
Authors of “The analysis of costs and benefits of gradual scaling-up of installation of energy efficient furnaces in the Kyrgyz Republic” report suggest switching to energy efficient furnaces as an alternative.
“In today’s reality, the demand for coal and contributing factors show that the most widespread and popular fuel among the population remains coal heating. It means that we need to develop various energy efficient actions, including the process of switching to energy efficient furnaces,” researchers said.
According to their estimates, the use of energy efficient furnaces can reduce the fuel consumption by 30 per cent.