Kazakhstan's shrinking villages add pressure to growing cities

Kazakhstan is facing a widening gap between depopulating villages and fast-growing cities, as people leave rural areas in search of work and services.

In Zaozerny, a village in northern Kazakhstan, abandoned apartment blocks are overgrown and only one building is still occupied. Yulia Sadvakasova, a 33-year-old schoolteacher and mother of two, said life there is calm and she can watch over the children, but travel to the nearest city takes two hours on a neglected road that can become almost impassable in rain or snow.

Zaozerny once had about 10,000 residents after the fall of the Soviet Union, supported by jobs at a nearby uranium mine. It now has 216 residents. The former city theatre is used by cows, the hospital is in ruins and a Soviet-era mosaic of a uranium miner is damaged.

Kazakhstan is the ninth-largest country in the world, stretching about 1,600 kilometres from north to south and 3,000 kilometres from west to east. It has about 20 million residents and is one of the world's least densely populated countries.

Officials say about 1,800 localities have disappeared since the turn of the century, leaving decaying buildings and names on maps. Most are in the north, where 1.2 million people have left since the Soviet collapse in 1991. The source report says migration is being driven by the exodus and ageing of the ethnic Slavic population, the lack of economic prospects and the movement of people toward cities.

About 25 to 30 percent of Kazakhstan's population lives in three cities: the capital Astana, and the southern cities of Almaty and Shymkent. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said in June that people were moving in large numbers to Astana and Almaty, citing a lack of social facilities in the regions. In separate comments last year, he warned that the influx was putting major pressure on cities. He said schools in Astana were overloaded and heating and water systems were struggling to cope.

Some people say the capital offers opportunities that smaller towns cannot. Schoolteacher Anara Batalova moved to Astana from a small polluted industrial town in search of what she called dynamism. She said the city drew her with its lights, young people, movement, organisations and events. Her suburban community of Kosshy, about 20 kilometres from central Astana, has grown from barely 2,000 residents to 80,000 in 25 years.

The government is trying to reduce the flow to major cities while also slowing rural depopulation. State-backed financial incentives to encourage people to move north have had limited success, with many participants later leaving because of harsh winters and low wages.

Since spring, foreigners and ethnic Kazakhs who repatriate from abroad have been barred from obtaining resident permits in the three largest cities.

In Zaozerny, Acting Mayor Olga Zhukova pointed to recent improvements, saying the village was connected to running water last year and street lights were installed. She said hopes for the village depend on the nearby cement plant resuming work. Many families left when production was temporarily suspended last year. Zhukova said specialists and workers are now being recruited and that she hopes people will come and the village will continue to live.