Janyl Alymbaeva has lived in Novopavlovka all her life. The village, neighbouring Bishkek, has always contrasted with the capital. One-storey mansions, gardens and orchards, and the almost obligatory farmstead with cattle and poultry in every house. A measured life, unpaved roads, lack of gas, problems with sewerage - all this has long been usual for Zhanyl and other settlement residents. After all, they live in the village, not in the city. 

But recently everything changed. In March, Novopavlovka became part of Bishkek. It was included in the capital's territories by a decree of President Sadyr Zhaparov together with other suburban villages.

Thus, together with Novopavlovka, the following settlements are joined to the capital:

• Orok aiyl aimak and contour No. 177 of Ak-Jol village of At-Bashy aiyl aimak of Sokuluk district;
• aiyl aimaks of Kok-Zhar, Alamedin, Nizhnyaya Ala-Archa, Lebedinovka, Mayevka, Prigorodnoye of Alameda district;
• Orto-Sai village of Tash-Debensky aiyl aimak of Alameda district;
• Anar-Bak residential area and contours Nos. 544, 545, 552 of Kara-Zhygacha aiyl aimak of Alameda district;
• Altyn-Kazyk residential area of Ak-Debensky aimak of Alameda district;
• Mykan village and residential areas ‘Ak-Zhar’, ‘Nurkojo-Ata’, ‘Adilet’ of Lenin aiyl aimak of Alameda district.

The goals of joining all these new Bishkek territories are to improve the socio-economic situation, rational use of resources, increase the efficiency of local self-government, enhance the quality of public services and ensure the population's well-being.

And now the residents of the Novopavlovka municipal territorial administration are waiting for their village to become a city to the fullest extent. They hope that here, as in other, say, such old districts of Bishkek, asphalt roads will be built, parks will be laid out, and kindergartens and schools will be built, as in the capital. And, of course, they will install gas and sewage systems, as well as public transport to connect the MTU with other parts of the city.

"One of the biggest problems for every resident of our village, especially the Tynchtyk residential area, is sewerage and clean water supply. The latter is particularly important as due to the lack of access to water we have more frequent infectious diseases in our village. Particularly children in kindergartens. I am a professional medic and know how much depends on the water quality. I hope that now that Novopavlovka has been annexed to Bishkek, this issue will be resolved more quickly,’ Zhanyl Alymbayeva said.

In her words, former villagers, now de jure full-fledged citizens, are very hopeful that their homes will have clean water. Although they are sceptical about the officials' promises, they have voiced their needs more than once and faced indifference from local authorities.

"We have had this problem for not just one year. Of course, we have appealed to the village government many times. But they either don't hear, or ignore us, or officials shift the problem to each other. I think that only someone interested in seeing this through to the end can deal with it,’ the woman says. 

The ‘Emgek’ party has thought about the problem of integrating Bishkek's new districts into the capital as soon as possible, including providing yesterday's villagers with such common urban amenities as clean water. This issue was included in the pre-election programme of the party ‘Initiative City 2.0’. The party promises it will do everything possible to make Novopavlovka a full-fledged part of the city as soon as possible.

’For now, this is a formal status for the MTA “Novopavlovka”. We see that nothing has changed for the residents of these territories - there is poor road infrastructure, no gas and sometimes no light, and the problems of engineering communications have not been solved. Not to mention there are no cultural facilities, medical centres, schools or kindergartens built to the capital's standard. Although all this should be in every residential area, in every district, regardless of when it was annexed to Bishkek’, Syrgak Mairambek uulu, a candidate for Bishkek City Kenesh from the Emgek party said.

To achieve the goals of administrative-territorial reform and solve the problems of residential areas and new capital districts, a development plan with step-by-step solutions, specific executors and deadlines must be drawn up.

In addition, it will be necessary to make a comprehensive inventory of the living conditions of the residents of these areas, to determine priorities for solving the problems, and to fix in the budget the relevant expenditure items for their implementation.

At the same time, as noted by Toktosun Sultanov, Chairman of the Emgek Party, the administrative-territorial reform is a very correct and timely decision of the President of the Kyrgyz Republic.

"The capital's territory has tripled thanks to the reform - from 12,900 to 38,600 hectares. And this provides Bishkek with opportunities for harmonious development. The fact is that with the constant increase in the number of residents, our city did not change territorially, which limited the possibility of building new residential areas with all the inherent infrastructural formations,’ he emphasises.

According to Toktosun Sultanov, it is necessary to merge the new territories of Bishkek with the ‘old’ city as soon as possible. This will allow us to solve common infrastructure problems more effectively, to plan the development of roads and communications, and to carry out development following modern requirements and new realities, creating a single urban space, convenient for all residents.

Recall, that the elections to Bishkek City Kenesh will be held on 17 November. The party ‘Emgek’ goes in the ballot paper under number 4.