Environmental Assessment of Kazakhstan’s urban water and wastewater treatment plants

Faculty Development Competitive Research Grant Program (General) 2024-2026

The research project has two primary goals: (1) perform a full-scale environmental assessment of Kazakhstan’s urban water infrastructure using LCA to identify the net carbon emissions of the system and (2) conduct stochastic human health RA to quantify the impact of water and soil contamination due to ineffective treatment and waste disposal. The extended life cycle inventory, including contaminants uncommon to the public water sector, and the risk assessment will provide a basic background understanding to develop the new environmental guidelines. No such research has been conducted in the country so far, and applying both LCA and RA to define the exact impact is also a novel idea in the international research field. Therefore, the main objectives of the study are:
1) to conduct the LCA and RA of water/wastewater treatment plants, water distribution and wastewater collection systems, and raw water abstraction / treated wastewater discharge alternatives.
2) to perform simulations on implementing clean development mechanisms that will target the “weak spots” of the system revealed by the environmental assessment and compare them with the current conditions.
3) to suggest improvements and revisions of Kazakhstan’s environmental code on the maximum contaminant level of the considered toxic pollutants based on the RA results.