Land plots and nearby peasant fields in the village of Taldybulak, Talgar District of the Almaty Region have been flooded with sewage waste for several years. Utility services refuse to take responsibility for the situation.
According to ORDA, local residents reported that the wastewater comes from several sources: the tuberculosis dispensary, the Amiran plant in the village of Chimbulak, the Ak Bulak sanatorium, and new private sector developments, and then flows onto the agricultural lands of the Belbulak Rural District.
It is reported that the system is connected to the central sewage main near the Kuldzha Highway.
"We are constantly breathing in this stench; the wastewater keeps flowing and flowing. This year it has been flowing here for two months already. The utility workers come, do something, and the leak stops. But after two or three days, it starts leaking in the same place or somewhere else. This is already an ecological disaster. Someone must finally take this sewer system onto their balance sheet and monitor its condition," says a local resident.
Local authorities cite the lack of legal formalisation of the network and the fragmentation of the plots it runs through. As local resident Maxim Inozemtsev explained, part of the land on which the utilities were laid was previously transferred for housing development in violation of regulations.
According to available information, plots were either given away for free under a state programme or sold through affiliated schemes. As a result, the engineering utilities ended up underneath private houses.
Now, modernising the system would require either demolishing some of the buildings or building a different sewer along an alternative route — both options require significant resources.
Against this backdrop, other consequences of the haphazard land distribution have also intensified: residents report the filling in of irrigation ditches, the blocking of old roads, and changes to stream channels, making access to some houses impossible.
Earlier, at a meeting with residents on 7 April 2025, the Deputy Akim of Talgar District, Anvar Askerbekov, confirmed that even plots of former cattle burial grounds had been illegally reclassified as private subsidiary plots and sold to individuals.
It will be recalled that in December 2024, FBK investigated the waste disposal crisis in the village of Priirtyshskoye (commonly known as Utinka), where overflowing sewage systems forced residents to seek illegal alternatives.
Local authorities initially allowed waste dumping on a vacant lot, but after public outcry, disowned the decision. Residents were forced to pay monthly for expensive services from city cesspool emptiers.
After the FBK publication, the district akimat took control of the situation and promised to provide the district with sewer networks. The story highlighted the systemic crisis of utility infrastructure in the Kazakh provinces.