Can Kyrgyzstan’s nomads survive?

On the day I arrive in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan’s capital, it’s almost impossible to see the mountains that loom behind the city because of the smog. By the late morning, they have started to appear. Second-hand cars from around the world jam the four-lane highways that make up the city’s post-Soviet grid. Left-hand-drive cars (the correct side for Kyrgyz roads) are prized. My driver is on the right. He swerves to avoid a container lorry covered with Chinese symbols.

‘If you’re walking, you’re poor. The car is like the new horse,’ explains Anton Usov, chief spokesman for central Asia at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. In Bishkek’s art gallery, a photographic exhibition highlights the city’s smog problem: Bishkek is ranked the second most polluted city in the world by the United Nations Environment Programme. Most of the problem is down to the heavy use of coal for central heating in winter and air conditioning in summer.