OSCE supports evaluation workshop and on-site training in improving mining and tailings safety in Kokshetau, Kazakhstan

An OSCE-supported on-site training and evaluation workshop under an UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) project on improving mining and tailings safety, with special attention to transboundary implications on the territories of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, concluded on 13 June 2019 in Kokshetau, Kazakhstan.

The event was co-organized by the OSCE Programme Office in Nur-Sultan in partnership with the UNECE and Kazakhstan’s Water Initiatives Centre. It brought together 30 government officials from Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

The training workshop provided a dialogue platform for national authorities to improve institutional co-ordination on tailings management facilities (TMF) safety in the transboundary context. The participants focused on the UNECE safety guidelines and good practices for TMFs. They also reviewed the implementation of the UNECE Convention on the Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents and the UNECE Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes. The meeting concluded with the evaluation of ongoing UNECE tailings management projects in Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, in view of the upcoming sub-regional workshop expected to take place in autumn, 2019.

The training seminar is part of the Office’s long-standing efforts to promote the implementation of international conventions in Kazakhstan, as well as to support the OSCE environmental security concept and disaster risk reduction management in the country.