It has been 25 years since the Soviet Union collapsed, but some habits die hard.
Before September 27, the day on which President Nursultan Nazarbayev was due to visit, the city of Kyzylorda, in southern Kazakhstan, went into overdrive to prepare for the leader’s arrival.
As a rule, that kind of visit means city workers hastily tidying up the streets, effecting express repairs on the roads, demolishing dilapidated facilities and smartening up facades.
Kyzylorda, however, has more than the average amount of eyesores to hide, particularly on the road along which Nazarbayev was set to drive into town, so authorities adopted some creative solutions, as local media reported. One particular headache in Kyzylorda are the amount of dilapidated homes and potholed roads.
Rather than repair the problem homes, city authorities simply erected a long fence to hide the offending buildings from Nazarbayev’s view, news website Nur.kz reported.
This drastic measure might have gone unremarked upon but for the fact that the fence has caused a sudden surge in car accidents. As motorists pull into the road from behind the barricade, they are unable to see oncoming traffic, often leading to collisions. Local residents have told media they are afraid for their children’s lives and are making sure they don’t get too close to the fence.
Kyzylorda resident Ainur Aldabergenova complained to Nur.kz that real problems, meanwhile, are not being dealt with.
“There are no asphalted roads. When it rains you just can’t walk anywhere. As much as we complain, there are no results. They put the fence up not too long ago. It is likely that this is how city workers have decided to block us off and forget about our problems. I think they don’t want our president to see what conditions we live in,” Aldabergenova said.
In another city and on another day, it was the same story. When Nazarbayev was headed to the northern city of Kostanay on September 23, no efforts were spared in creating a good impression. Using their mobile phones, residents filmed workers washing road surface markings by hand. All of a sudden, Kostanay found it had clean and smooth roads, website KazDay reported.
Experience shows that when fresh asphalt is laid down for special visits, it is spread so thinly — to save money — that the roads revert to their dismal original state before long.
And yet Nazarbayev claimed not too long ago that he wanted a stop put to all this kind of mischief. During a February visit to the business capital, Almaty, to inspect preparations for the 2017 Winter Universiade, the president deplored the habit of giving cities hasty polishes for visiting dignitaties.
“You must not lick the roads that the leadership drives on. All money should be directed toward the development of underprivileged areas, where the state of roads is poor,” Nazarbayev said.
Somebody didn’t get the memo it seems.
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