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In an emergency, even simple decisions become difficult. Fear takes over. People panic. They may struggle to explain what happened, where they are, or what kind of help they need. Yet this is exactly the moment when we expect them to make the right decision quickly.
For me, this issue is deeply personal. I lost my sibling, and one of the factors was the delayed arrival of an ambulance. Since then, I have understood in the most painful way that emergency response is not simply about phone numbers or procedures. It is about time. And sometimes, minutes can change everything.
Kazakhstan already has a unified emergency number: 112. At the same time, people can call 101 for fire and rescue services, 102 for police, 103 for ambulance, and 104 for emergency gas services. So Kazakhstan does not need another emergency number. The more important question is what happens after someone calls 112.
Imagine a serious road accident. One person is injured and needs an ambulance. Another may be trapped inside a vehicle and require rescue assistance. Police may also be needed to secure the scene. In such a moment, should a frightened caller really have to think about which agency is responsible for what? The system should make that decision. This is the real value of an integrated emergency response system. A single number is only the front door. What matters is what happens behind it: how quickly information moves, how agencies communicate, and whether the right services can be mobilized together when an emergency crosses institutional boundaries.
International experience offers a useful principle. In the United States, 911 provides access to emergency assistance from police, fire, or ambulance services. Across the European Union, 112 provides a common number through which people can reach police, ambulance, or fire services. The systems behind these numbers are not identical, and Kazakhstan should not simply copy either model. But they share an important idea: the citizen should not need to understand the architecture of the government in order to ask for emergency help.
Complexity should sit behind the system, not in front of the citizen. Kazakhstan is already moving in this direction. My professional experience includes close cooperation with the Ministry of Emergency Situations, and through my work I have seen the importance placed on emergency preparedness and interagency coordination.
Recent developments are particularly encouraging. Kazakhstan has updated the rules governing coordination between 112 and other duty and emergency services. The framework covers interaction with police, ambulance and medical aviation, as well as other services that may need to respond to an emergency. Kazakhstan’s civil protection legislation also provides a foundation for 112 to interact with information systems and use relevant information from emergency services and government databases. Telecommunications operators are required to provide 112 with caller-location services. In other words, much of the foundation already exists. The next challenge is to make that integration fully visible where it matters most. That requires more than technology.
First, a call to 112 should be enough to activate the necessary response. If an incident requires an ambulance, police, and rescuers, coordination should happen inside the emergency system rather than becoming the caller’s responsibility.
Second, information should move with the emergency. A person in distress should not have to repeatedly explain the same situation as information passes between services. Dispatchers and responders need a common picture of what is happening, where it is happening, and which resources are already on the way.
Third, citizens need to understand and trust 112. Public communication should make its role simple: when you face an emergency and do not know which service you need or when you need several services at once, there is one door through which you can ask for help.
This is not only a matter of convenience. The World Health Organization treats emergency communication and dispatch centers as a central coordination element of effective prehospital emergency care. The logic is straightforward: receiving information, assessing the situation, and directing the appropriate resources are part of the emergency response itself.
Kazakhstan therefore does not have to build a unified emergency system from the beginning. It has something more promising: an existing 112 service, a legal framework, new coordination rules, and an opportunity to strengthen the connections between them. For someone facing a fire, a road accident, a medical crisis, or several dangers at once, the boundaries between ministries and services should be invisible. A person in crisis should have one responsibility: ask for help. The system should take care of the rest.
I know personally what a delayed response can mean. That is why, for me, strengthening 112 is not primarily about making government more convenient. It is about making help easier to reach at the moment when someone may be having the worst day of their life.
When every second counts, one call should be enough.
The author is Aigul Akhmetova, a graduate student at the Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Public Policy.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of The Astana Times.
