Kazakh Activist Taken To Police After Solo Protest Over Dirty Water

A resident of Talgar was taken to a police station after starting a solo picket over drinking water problems, Orda.kz reports.

Ayman Jarlykasymova came to Victory Park to draw public and local officials’ attention to the quality of drinking water in the city. She managed to stand with a poster for less than 10 minutes before a police officer approached her and asked her to go to the station to check her documents.

According to Jarlykasymova, Talgar residents regularly face water supply interruptions, low pressure in pipes, and dirty tap water after rain.

At the scene,  Orda.kz found out that the picket had initially been approved. However, about an hour before the official start time, 11:00, the activist was notified that it had been cancelled because of an alleged scheduling overlap.

The authorities are afraid of publicity and the truth, so they are trying to block the picket with another event,she said.

Meruert Mubarakova, head of Talgar’s internal policy department, was also present in the park. She explained the situation as an “information gap” between different departments of the akimat. At the same time, she said Jarlykasymova had allegedly violated picket rules by inviting the media and trying to gather people.

By 12:00, Jarlykasymova still came to the picket site, saying she had not received an official refusal from the akimat. Such a document must be sent three days before the approved date.

Despite the short duration of the protest, she managed to state her main point: since 2008, Talgar residents have not been able to solve the problem of drinking water quality. According to them, the water remains dirty and unfit for drinking.

Other residents confirmed the problem to Orda.kz. Talgar resident and activist Zhanna Baitelova sent the editorial office photos of what comes from local taps. The pictures show cloudy water. According to Baitelova, residents have been fighting for access to clean water for several years, but the situation has not changed.

Saltanat Algazieva, chief specialist of the Talgar District Akimat’s department for documentation support, public service monitoring, and information technology, confirmed to Orda.kz that Jarlykasymova had permission to hold a solo picket. She could not explain why it was cancelled.

Talgar’s utility problems affect several areas. Earlier, employees of the local water utility protested over fears of layoffs, while farmers said they had lost crops because of irrigation failures, despite multimillion-tenge budget spending on network reconstruction.

Original author: Eva Golovintseva

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