A working group of scientists and experts have recommended unifying Kazakhstan into a single time zone for health and economic advantages. The entire country will soon observe UTC+5, thereby discontinuing the current UTC+6 in the eastern regions, including the country’s capital, Astana. However, not all citizens are happy with the decision.
In December, the Kazakh Ministry of Trade and Integration announced a plan for Kazakhstan to adopt a single time zone under UTC+5. On March 1st, the clocks in Astana, and twelve other regions will turn back one hour. The decision to shift away from this East Asian policy was formalized by former prime minister Alikhan Smailov on January 19th, 2024.
Kazakhstan is the world’s largest landlocked country with geographical dimensions so wide that it could qualify for 3–4 different time zones. For 96 years, the country has been split into two time zones, delineating its western regions under UTC+5, known as AQTT, ORAT, and QYZT, while the eastern and central regions adhered to UTC+6, denoted as ALMT.
The proposed time adjustment is not the first temporal shift that the country has adopted. In 2004, Kazakhstan abolished Daylight Saving Time (DST) and subsequently, in 2018, the Qyzylorda region transitioned from UTC+6 to UTC+5. These changes are reminiscent of Kazakhstan’s neighbor, China, which, despite its extensive expanse, continues to operate under a single time zone.
When including special offsets, which include zones with special increments of 30 minutes and 45 minutes, and bonus time zones, there are currently 38 different time zones in the world. Only 22 states use two or more time zones.
Health and economic reasons
Experts cited health and economic benefits when abolishing DST in 2005, and similar motivations underlie the current proposal for a unified time zone in Kazakhstan. As power generation and transmission improved, the need for energy conservation with biannual time changes was deemed unnecessary.
Doctors also reported that people in Kazakhstan reacted negatively to time changes, citing “insomnia, spikes in blood pressure, endocrinal deviations and the exacerbation of chronic diseases” as examples. The negative impact extends beyond health, with frequent time changes being linked to an increase in driving accidents and lowered productivity.
Less than 40% of countries observe DST, which was initially introduced to conserve coal during the First World War and was later kept in the EU mostly to harmonize between countries. In abolishing the practice, Kazakhstan followed the examples of fellow Asian countries of China, Estonia, Japan, Singapore, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
According to the Russian information agency, Interfax, when choosing to apply UTC+5 to the entire country, scientists reasoned the change by stating that UTC+6 “does not correspond to natural solar time, which negatively affects biological rhythms and human health.” Commencing March 1st, Kazakstan will entirely observe the time zone closest to the sun’s cycle, resulting in more light in the morning as the sun will rise and set one hour earlier.
The change is also supposed to have positive effects on transportation, business development, and services, as well as remove communication barriers between regions.
Divided opinion
However, not all citizens are happy with the decision to adopt a single time zone.
Professor Sultan Tuleukhanov of Kazakh State University warns that the proposed time zone change could induce “desynchronosis,” disrupting the chrono-structural parameters of biological rhythms and causing irritability and fatigue. Conversely, Professor Kureish Khamchiev, head of the Department of Normal Physiology at Astana Medical University, argues that a unified time zone will indeed address the problems caused by desynchronosis, stating that “it is necessary to synchronize the natural rhythms of the population of the entire republic.”
Earlier this year, a lawyer from Ust-Kamenogorsk filed a complaint to the government, seeking compensation for the “nervous stress” arising from time change adjustment. In response, the government dispatched scientists to the region to explain the benefits of embracing a unified time zone.
Further, some argue that because it will get darker earlier in the eastern regions, expenditure on electricity will increase. But the director of the Kazakhstan Electricity Grid Operating Company insisted that finances will only affect residents slightly because there is a natural increase in consumption of 2% a year anyway.
On a public forum on the Kazakh government website, citizens expressed negative opinions on the amendment. Comments complained that a “colossal loss of daylight is coming after making such a decision” and that “there is no need to steal sunlight from people and take away their health.”
