Khaidarkan feels
like a frontier town, but a quiet one. Even
the market seems relaxed and
unhurried. The few people
in the streets are friendly enough to
visitors, but they do
not bother to hide their concern about the
future of the
kombinat – and their own. It is in every
sense a company town.
Not only does the town’s economy depend on
the mercury mine –
for example, irrigation water is also
supplied directly by the kombinat. The town
is home to about
10,000 people. In 1989 3,500 of Khaidarkan’s
townspeople were directly employed by the
kombinat. That number
had fallen to 1,500 by the mid-1990s, and to
750 in 2008. The main
alternative employment is agriculture –
livestock, or growing
apples, potatoes, carrots and cereals. Some
40% of people in Batken province
still earn less than the
minimum subsistence level. There are
not many options for
job-seekers in this district of
south-western Kyrgyzstan, |
|
which explains
the anxiety in the town that the kombinat
should continue working, even if it
has to fid a very different raison d’etre.
This in turn probably helps to explain the
apparent indifference of many people
in Khaidarkan to the
possibility that they are living in a
polluted environment.
Further afild,
though, food and textile industries and
service sectors are expanding in the Batken
province,
where Khaidarkan is located. This should
hopefully provide more opportunities for
work for the people of Khaidarkan. Many of
the province’s young people also work
in Kazakhstan and Russia, sending
remittances home to
support their families. But with the
diffiult global economic situation causing
many people working abroad to
return to Kyrgyzstan, employment and
income for the entire region is likely to
fall even further. |
