Kazakhstan Floods Displace More Than 110,000 People From Their Homes

A view of Zarechnyi village near the city of Kostan in southern Kazakhstan on April 14, where its railway tracks and bridges have been submerged by floodwaters. Spring flooding has forced more than 110,000 Kazakhs to evacuate, government officials said on April 15.
 

Residents in Petropavl, a city of some 219,000 people, located roughly 430 kilometers northwest of the Kazakh capital, Astana, were forced to line up for potable water as the city's main reservoir was flooded.

Several districts of the city -- which sits on the Ishim River, a tributary of the Irtysh, the chief tributary of the Ob -- were inundated with floodwaters.

 

Kazakhstan is facing its worst flooding in living memory, exacerbated by heavy rain and melting snow, which are inundating already waterlogged areas of the country. 

Areas of Petropavl were off limits to residents as police cordoned off flooded neighborhoods.

The city's Podgora district is now inundated.
 

Another view of the Podgora district.

Some residents said that their houses had been submerged up to their roofs or had even detached from their foundations and floated away.

 

On April 11, villagers from Bersiev, located some 17 kilometers west of Astana, were evacuated by military transport. Just 18 out of 236 of the settlement's homes were still habitable when floodwaters nearly swamped them, according to exclusive RFE/RL drone footage.

In anticipation of rising water levels, authorities are continuing to evacuate settlements in the western region of the country.