Despite Kazakhstan’s readiness for seasonal water runoff, this year has been a shock to the country, with floodwaters destroying villages, according to bne IntelliNews.
Bridges have been destroyed, whole sections of highways have been submerged, and hundreds of homes have been left uninhabitable, with many without running water and domestic gas. At least three people are believed to have died.
The floods that began in March affected at least seven regions, with the north being the worst affected. The Emergencies Ministry reported that as of 29 March, about 4,700 people, including almost 1,700 children, had been rescued and evacuated. Over 500 residential houses were flooded. In some regions, entire government buildings, schools and hospitals have been flooded.
Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov called the floods the largest in recent years. Bektenov added that the Prosecutor General’s Office would investigate whether the scale of the crisis was exacerbated by negligence.
The main thing now is to save people’s lives and minimise the fallout from the disaster.
The Abai regional department of the Emergency Services Ministry reported on 29 March that the search for three men missing in the floods had been underway for a week. One of them was believed to fall from a horse into the rushing river, after which he was apparently swept away by the current. The other two tried to cross the same river on a tractor and got stuck.
A court in the northern Akmola region fined six residents of the village of Koyandy for participating in an unsanctioned rally to address public discontent with the authorities on 28 March. Fifty villagers blocked a nearby road in protest against the local authorities’ failure to clear snow in a timely manner, which they claimed led to flooding of their homes.
Critics of the government argue that officials are ignoring warnings from experts about impending floods. However, officials say the scale of disasters is getting worse. Kirill Pavlov, the Shymkent-based leader of a farming lobby organisation, claimed that the government should have learned how to manage meltwater a long time ago.
All countries that have water shortage collect every drop of rain, every snowflake, but in our country all the water from the floods is lost. We have never learned to value water.
