Orsk residents protest against government for lack of relief
Three days after Russia declared a federal emergency in the Orenburg region near Kazakhstan, flood-stricken citizens have started protesting in front of local administrative buildings in a desperate bid for help, state news agency Tass reported.
The local government office has attributed the floods to the swift melting of snow in the Ural Mountains, causing the Ural River to swell rapidly. It was also said that more than 4,000 civilians, including 885 children, were forced to evacuate their homes. Rescue workers have been using boats for travelling through the flood-logged city.
The city of Orsk, home to over 230,000 residents and located approximately 1,100 miles east of Moscow, was the worst hit. The breaking of the dam embankment resulted in 70% of the city still being submerged in standing floodwater, days after the disaster.
According to a news report from Tass, hundreds of protestors took to the streets with demands for emergency relief. Despite Russia’s notoriously stringent provisions for handling dissent in the country, participation in this rare occurrence was high.
Drone footage of the city of Orsk, showed most one story buildings completely submerged, with only roofs visible in flood water.
Mass protests in Orsk, following the Ural floods
Local residents have called out the President of the nation, Vladimir Putin, for being solely focused on the war-efforts despite the disaster at home. Several social media posts showed Russian citizens chanting “shame on you, shame on you” and “Putin help” in a desperate attempt to draw attention to their sufferings.
Local media organisations also covered the protests, showcasing the dissent of the residents who have lost all their belongings in the flood and are now hungry and homeless, desperately waiting for government relief.
The total damage from the flood has been estimated at 21 billion Rubles ($227 million). Reports from Tass on Sunday suggest over 10,000 homes are flooded in the Orenburg region, with roughly 7,000 homes in Orsk alone.
Several citizens expressed their anger at the failure of the dam in Orsk to contain flooding, while many also complained about the government’s lack of preparedness and the low rate of compensation being provided as relief.
Drone footage from Tass showed the thousands of homes in Orsk submerged in the floodwater, many up to rooftops. The mayor of Orsk, Vasily Kozupitsa, said a criminal investigation is currently underway in connection with construction standard violations in the building of the dam on the Orsk River that may have resulted in the dam breaking.
Soon after the protests, the governor of the Orenburg region, Denis Pasler, promised compensation of 10,000 rubles a month, for the next six months in a bid to alleviate the flood-stricken residents’ woes.
Ural floods result from climate change; the worst is yet to come
The Ural River, the third-longest river in Europe, is the latest implication of impending climate change. The Russian Ministry estimated on Sunday that many regions of the Urals, the Volga, Siberia, and Central Russia have been flooded or will be by Tuesday.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday that the Russian president has held meetings with the head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations along with the regional heads of the Tyumen and Kurgan regions, located east in the Ural Mountains, as the region is also flood-prone.
The governor of the Kurgan region, Vadim Shumkov, issued a video post late on Monday, warning residents about possible flooding in over 50 areas in his vicinity.
Tass reported Shumkov saying, “To all those who live in all settlements along the floodplain of the Tobol River, evacuate. Do not wait for the arrival of water. It will come at night and unexpectedly, arriving quickly, in the form of a large wave.”
Russia’s’ water level information site AllRivers reported on Sunday, that the water level in Orsk reached 9.7 metres (31.82 feet), the highest ever recorded in Russia.
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