2,000 people shifted 3mn cubic metres of snow from Astana this winter 

One really impressive thing about Astana is the snow removal, known as “sneg oborka” in Kazakhstan. 

After a snowfall, the snowploughs – a fleet of seven big orange ones – comes out.  The drive in formation down the wide streets, each with its plough slightly angled towards the curb so the central one pushes its load outwards to the second, which is a few metres behind it, the second to the third and so on, with the last one depositing it in piles along the curb. 

These are then picked up on another machine, a kind of conveyorbelt, that people push the snow onto the bottom and which ferris it upward to deposit it into waiting trucks. When they are full they then drive out of the city and dump it in the steppe. 

Shovelling snow

After a snowfall, armies of workers (mostly oralmans – ethnic Kazakhs who have immigrated from neighbouring countries like China and need to be employed) get to work shovelling the snow onto the conveyor belt. Others are out with shovels clearing the pavements; the scrape of metal shovels on tarmac and closely packed ice are like nails on a blackboard. 

They are thickly clad in orange or green overalls, very padded, with only small piece of their face around the eyes exposed to the snow, wearing hats and scarves thickly wrapped around their faces, gloves and heavy boots. If you look closely, you can see there are some women among them. 

Over the winter months, the snow packs down under its own weight. In February the army of snow removers come out with ice picks and drilling machines and start hacking and drilling it off the pavements. These big chunks of dirty ice are then put out in huge piles on the curb for the trucks to take away. Like the lines on a tree truck, there are layers in them from each snowfall, the original white snow becoming coated with exhaust fumes, embedded cigarette butts, sweet wrappers and other debris, only to be covered by another layer in the next heavy fall. 

Mammoth task

It’s an enormous task – according to the Astana city website more than 500 machines and almost 2,000 people are employed in snow removal. 

Snow removal in Astana takes place around the clock on weekdays, weekends and holidays. 

Almost 3 million cubic metres of snow were removed from Astana between November 2012 and mid February 2013. Individual snowfalls don’t tend to be huge because it’s quite a dry city but it adds up because it doesn’t melt at all between November and March.

They don’t bother so much with the pavements in December as it’s not going to thaw, and it’s nice thick white fine snow. They start taking it away intensively from February, when there’s a danger of a sudden warm spell in March, which could cause flooding – it does in other cities where they don’t take the snow away properly. Unlike in the capital, elsewhere in Kazakhstan it’s left to pile up in huge drifts. 

More posts about daily life in Astana

Astana, Kazakhstan’s glittering capital on the steppe 

Where to find old Astana

Hanging out at the malls in Astana

Spring comes to Astana 

How to survive winter in Astana