Fighting Fit - and Green - in Almaty

Kazakhstan's tennis-loving President Nursultan Nazarbayev has made improving the nation's health a key policy for the future. The country's commercial hub, Almaty, has responded to the challenge by opening of a host of new parks and sports facilities in the city center. But these are no ordinary recreation areas. They are built on the detritus of stalled construction projects.

“Only a healthy nation can be a competitive one. Therefore, one of the state's strategic policies is the expansion of a mass sport movement,” Nazarbayev announced in Almaty on August 14.

When I moved to Almaty in 2005, Kurmangazy Street in the center of the city was a leafy residential street lined with low-level houses dating from the 1950s. As property prices rocketed in the intervening years, these two-story houses became a target of rapacious speculators who demolished them to make way for apartment blocks.

But the 2008-2009 financial crisis hit hard and the redevelopment plans were shelved, leaving the heart of Almaty scarred with failed construction sites. Then some bright spark in the city mayor's office came up with the idea to turn the vacant lots into parks.

Now on a summer's evening the city's newest parks ring with the sound of children playing and frenetic five-a-side soccer matches. These getaways provide a much-needed green oasis in a polluted city and offer a respite from the summer heat.

Further down Kurmangazy, a new tennis complex has recently opened, and another little park features a pair of yurts where Almatinians can recover from all this exercise and get back to their roots as they guzzle healthy bowls of koumiss, the slightly alcoholic national tipple made from fermented mare's milk.

Affordable sports facilities are much in demand as Kazakhstan battles with chronic health problems. Life expectancy for men is a paltry 62.58 years, with women living on average just over 10 years longer. 

Kazakhs like to joke that they are the world's second biggest eaters of meat – lagging only behind wolves. This unhealthy diet is complimented by a hard-drinking and heavy-smoking lifestyle. With vodka costing as little as $2 per half liter and cigarettes starting at 50 cents a pack, it's going to be an uphill battle weaning the nation off its bad habits and into a healthier way of life.