Human Rights Heroes at Home 2009 - Green Alternatives

View full size

Submitted by: Michelle Kinman

Svetlana Anosova is the leader of Green Steppe, a community group in the village of Berezovka, Kazakhstan, which is fighting for relocation and compensation from the nearby Karachaganak oil and gas condensate field. One of the largest fields of its kind worldwide, Karachaganak is spewing a host of toxins into this community causing serious environmental and health damage. Though entitled to relocation under Kazakhstani law, this community has been left to breathe in hydrogen sulfide, methylene chloride, carbon disulfide, toluene and many other toxins on a regular basis. One independent study revealed that 45% of the village suffers chronic health problems.
As a mother and grandmother, Svetlana could not sit by and watch her community be silently destroyed. She created Green Steppe to discover why the health of her community is deteriorating and to attain justice. Over the past 7 years, she has been leading her community in a fight that has pitted them against major petroleum companies (Chevron, British Gas, ENI, Lukoil), the World Bank, and Kazakhstani government officials. Where many would have seen only closed doors, Svetlana has filed official complaints to the World Bank and the government of Kazakhstan, organized independent air monitoring, medical studies, a door-to-door health survey, and human rights workshops for her community, all in order to ensure that her village—though too small to appear on most maps—is heard throughout the world.
In a country that relies heavily on foreign investment in the oil and gas industry for its economic revenues, Svetlana is speaking out about injustice as a result of its activity. She is demanding accountability, clean production, and compensation for communities adversely impacted by oil and gas development. She is a spokesperson for her small, impoverished and disenfranchised community; attempts to silence her have failed, but she is under increasing pressure to stop speaking out. International attention can help her in her struggle to bring justice and a clean environment to the villagers of Berezovka.