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Devastating floods ravage Kazakhstan and Russia

April 15, 2024

Tens of thousands of people were displaced following devastating floods after major rivers burst their banks in northern Kazakhstan and Russia.

https://p.dw.com/p/4eltD
A flooded residential area in Petropavl, Kazakhstan, 2024
Kazakhstan and Russia grapples with devastating floods Image: Turar Kazangapov/REUTERS

More than 125,000 people have been displaced by flooding in Russia's southern Ural region and northern Kazakhstan, authorities said on Monday.

Swiftly melting snow swelled several rivers in the region last week, including the Ural, Europe's third-largest river, with authorities saying that water levels had risen by meters in a matter of hours to the highest levels ever recorded.

Authorities said floodwaters continue to rise, posing further threats.

Evacuated people are sitting at a big table and having meals in their temporary housing.
Kazakhstan authorities provide assistanceImage: Evgeniy Lukyanov/AFP/Getty Images

Power and water supply interrupted

Some 1,000 homes were flooded in the North Kazakhstan region, and over 5,000 people had been evacuated, local officials said. There have been interruptions in power and water supply in the region.

Floodwaters continue to rise in Orenburg, Russia

People were seen queuing up in front of water trucks moving from one neighbourhood to another in the badly affected city of Petropavlovsk in North Kazakhstan. The main reservoir supplying the city with drinkable water has been flooded.

Just a few hundred kilometres over the border, Russia's Kurgan, a region of 800,000 people at the confluence of the Ural mountains and Siberia, was grappling with flooding and rising water levels in the Tobol River.

"The city of Kurgan itself will be next," Kurgan Governor Vadim Shumko said. "The flow of the Tobol is accelerating. The water level in it is constantly rising," he added.
 

Flooded houses in Petropavl, Kazakhstan.
Over 125,000 people forced to flee their homes.Image: Turar Kazangapov/REUTERS

Floods were also inundating homes in the Tomsk region in the southwestern part of Siberia, regional officials said on Telegram.

ac/rm (Reuters,dpa)