Zaozerny is one of hundreds of villages in the Central Asian country that has seen almost its entire population leave -- many never to return as opportunities dry up and young people head to the ever-expanding cities."It's calm and peaceful here, I can always keep an eye on the children," said Yulia Sadvakasova, a 33-year-old schoolteacher and mother of two.Around the village is the vast Kazakh steppe, stretching seemingly endlessly into a horizon broken only by the solitary tower of a cement plant.A poster hung outside the school for upcoming municipal elections -- a rare reminder that life, for those who remain, has not frozen in time.
With around 20 million residents, Kazakhstan is one of the world's least densely populated countries © Ruslan PRYANIKOV / AFP
At the fall of the Soviet Union, the town had around 10,000 residents, supported by employment in a nearby uranium mine.And now? Just 216.Cows walk the floor of what used to be a city theatre. The former hospital is a heap of rubble and the uranium miner glorified on a huge Soviet mosaic has lost half his face.To reach the nearest city, Sadvakasova must drive two hours along a neglected road that becomes almost impassable in rain or snow."Everything is badly broken up. Whenever we can, we go somewhere, even though it's difficult," she told AFP.Cities under pressureVast Kazakhstan, the ninth-largest country in the world, stretches some 1,600 kilometres (994 miles) north-to-south and 3,000 kilometres west-to-east.And with around 20 million residents, it is one of the world's least densely populated.Officials say some 1,800 localities have already vanished since the turn of the century -- ghost villages that have become nothing more than decaying buildings and a name on a map.
