Community engagement

While operating Karachaganak KPO works to prevent or minimize the negative impacts and maximize the benefits from its presence by strengthening our engagement with local communities, thus creating conditions for economic growth and development. Company policies, standards and procedures in the area of corporate social responsibility are based on the Performance Standards of International Finance Corporation.

Tab. 22. Targets in community engagement

2020 targets	Target achievement	Actions taken in 2020	Targets for 2021
Implement the Community Development Programme for 2020 as per approved budget Sign a trilateral Memorandum of Cooperation with the Burlin District Akimat	Completed	The programs were implemented to the extent that the situation with the COVID-19 allowed. A trilateral memorandum of cooperation with the Burlin District Akimat was signed.	Implement the Community Development Programme as per approved budget
Conduct 12 Village Council meetings on social, environmental and economic topics with the three rural district communities: Priuralnyi, Zharsuat, Uspenovskiy	Completed partially	Due to the limitations of the COVID-19, 10 online meetings were held in three rural districts	Conduct 9 Village Council meetings in three rural districts on social and environmental issues
Review and timely close all in-coming grievances and suggestions from the communities	Completed	All received grievances were reviewed and effectively closed out	Review and timely close all incoming grievances and suggestions from the communities
Continue the post-resettlement monitoring of the households in Aksai and Araltal and assess whether additional livelihood restoration support is required	Completed	By the end of 2020, the guarantee obligations of construction companies for the maintenance of constructed facilities under the relocation project are fully fulfilled.	Continue the post-resettlement monitoring of the households in Aksai and Araltal and assess whether additional livelihood restoration support is required

In 2020, KPO continued engagement with local communities despite the COVID-19 quarantine restrictions imposed by the authorities of Burlin District and West Qazaqstan Oblast.

We held 10 online meetings with the Village Councils of three rural districts: Priuralnyi, Zharsuat and Uspenovskiy. During the sessions, we briefed the villagers about KPO’s 2020 community development assistance programmes and KPO’s environmental monitoring programme. We also announced the admission of candidates to the Company’s Scholarship Programme for school graduates from vulnerable families in Priuralnyi, Zharsuat and Uspenovskiy rural districts. Seven school graduates from the Priuralnyi, Zharsuat and Uspenovskiy rural districts, who met the criteria of the KPO Scholarship Programme, were enrolled in colleges and universities of West Qazaqstan Oblast.

Also during the Village Council meeting, we urged the local community members to follow the basic sanitary and hygiene rules such as to prevent the coronavirus spread in their areas.

As part of the Community Development Programme, KPO provided 150 vouchers for the elderly to rest in Akzhaiyk Sanatorium.

Community feedback mechanism

In accordance with KPO Community Grievance Procedure, we have received seven gas odor complaints from local communities living in close proximity to the Karachaganak Field. Investigations carried out by KPO Operations Environment Monitoring Team did not reveal any malfunctioning of the process equipment, leaks/emissions or MPC exceedances in each case. Feedbacks were communicated through the Community Liaison Specialist.

Monitoring of the resettled communities

2020 was the final year for our construction contractors to complete the 36-months’ warranty terms for maintenance of 100 houses and the School built in Araltal and the two 9-storey apartment blocks built in Aksai in 2017 for the households resettled from Berezovka and Bestau. In 2020, 198 complaints and requests have been received from the resettled households in Araltal and Aksai. Those included: minor construction defects in the apartments, such as replacement of joints between water pipes, leaking balconies and some internal coating works. By the end of 2020, the construction companies had fulfilled their warranty obligations in full by fixing all minor construction defects; all complaints were effectively closed.

In the spring of 2020 jointly with Burlin District authorities KPO supported the resettled families in Araltal with a mobile grocery shop selling food and essential goods during the lockdown.

In October 2020, with the support of Aksai Mayor’s Office, KPO Community Relations team supplied 150 saplings of rowan trees, maples and poplar trees from Burlin District Farm to green the territories of two 9-storey apartment blocks and one 5-storey apartment block in Aksai.

PUBLIC HEARINGS

During 2020, with the support of the Burlin District authorities, KPO held four public hearings in the form of open meetings on 6 construction projects and four public hearings in the form of a survey on 5 construction projects of various facilities, which included field and technology pipelines, environmental monitoring stations, as well as reconstruction and turnaround of the existing drilling units, facilities and temporary sites.

Information about public hearings is communicated to the public through publications in regional and district newspapers, as well as through the Company’s website. Public hearings are held in the format of an open meeting or a survey. In connection with the coronavirus pandemic, the KPO and the local executive bodies agreed to receive feedback from the population by submitting questionnaires, which are enclosed to the package of documents posted on KPO website.

All the projects discussed at the public hearings in 2020 were approved by the audience and recorded in the relevant meeting minutes, which are available on the website of Burlin District authorities and KPO website at ‘Sustainability/Social responsibility/Community engagement/Public hearings’.

CASE STUDY 7

COMMUNITY ‘GREEN’ INITIATIVE

Context / short description:

The issues of environmental protection and ecosystems of the territories adjacent to the Karachaganak field are always in the focus of KPO’s attention. In its production activities, the Company adheres to the highest standards aimed at minimizing the impact on the environment.

As part of the post-resettlement monitoring, KPO decided to green the courtyards of the houses built in Aksai.

Solution / actions:

In October 2020, KPO Community Relations team visited a number of farms in West Qazaqstan Oblast to learn how to grow various types of trees, both leafy and fruit trees and how to select the seedlings.

Result:

On 20 October 2020, with support of Aksai Mayor’s Office KPO staff delivered 150 saplings of mountain ash, Tatar maple and poplar for planting in the backyard of Apartment Blocks #24 and #25 in microregion 10 in Aksai. The saplings were handed over to the head of the Condominium.

The Condominium went to spread the tree planting also in the backyard of the apartment block No. 4/6 on Druzhby Narodov Street. All mentioned apartment blocks had been built for the households resettled in phases 1 and 2.

The joint efforts of the KPO Community Relations team, Aksai Mayor and the Cooperative of Apartment Owners have paid off. The ex-villagers highly appreciated the initiative for landscaping their yards. Taking care of the planted trees is the contribution of each resident to the environmental protection and preservation of the ecosystem in the area.

CASE STUDY 8

LOCAL COMMUNITY: RESETTLEMENT STORY OF THE DUSHEKENOV FAMILY

Context / short description:

The resettlement of Berezovka and Bestau, which used to be located on the border of the new Sanitary Protection Zone of the Karachaganak field, took place in the period from 2015 to 2017 in several stages. In total, over 460 families were relocated to Aksai and the adjacent newly developed Araltal microdistrict. One of the examples of settling in a new place and restoring the usual way of life is presented below.

Result:

Imanmalik Dushekenov is a retired resident, who moved with his elder son and his family from Berezovka Village to Aksai in Phase 1 at the end of 2015.

Imanmalik’s daughter Gulsin Nazarova worked as a schoolteacher of Qazaq language and literature at Berezovka School. In 2017, she was resettled to a new house in Araltal. Now she works at Araltal School as a teacher of Qazaq language and literature.

In accordance with Entitlement Matrix, the households where elderly resided together with grown up and married children were entitled to separate housing after resettlement. Therefore, Imanmalik’s married son and married daughter got two separate houses in Araltal.

Imanmalik Dushekenov’s son Sapargali has three children. The eldest son is already working, the youngest son is a 6-grade pupil of the Araltal school, his daughter Aizhan is a medical college graduate. She did her college under the KPO’s Scholarship Programme. After the graduation, KPO supported Aizhan with getting a job in local Clinic. Now Aizhan is a third-year student at a Medical University in Russia.

Aizhan says that KPO had given her a ticket to life through its Scholarship Programme. “My scholarship sponsored by KPO was bigger than that of other students’”.

When meeting with KPO Community Relations team Imanmalik Dushekenov thanked KPO for the assistance provided to his family: education for his granddaughter and a good housing in Araltal.