EKIBASTUZ, Kazakhstan -- Lyudmila Zelyonova goes to bed wrapped in layers of winter clothes, a scarf, and felt boots to keep warm as the temperatures in her home in the northeastern Kazakh city of Ekibastuz can dip below minus 20 degrees Celsius.
The pensioner and her neighbors in a Soviet-era apartment block on Satpaev Street in Ekibastuz say their homes have been disconnected from the city's central heating system for months.
Heat has not been restored in Ekibastuz since a power plant crashed on November 27 in the coal-mining city -- which is known for its notoriously harsh winters -- throwing hundreds of homes into a deep freeze.
Many buildings in the city of some 150,000 people depend on the centralized system and power stations for heating and hot water.
"I wear felt boots, layers of warm leggings, and a sheepskin jacket inside my apartment. It's terribly cold," Zelyonova says. "I used to keep a [small ventilation window] open in the past. Now, all the windows are sealed."
Zelyonova fears she soon won't be able to afford the electricity bills as she uses an electric heater to try to bring some warmth to her apartment.
Ekibastuz residents whose homes were affected by the power-station crash were given a one-time discount on their electricity bills in December. But that price cut is no longer available.
Zelyonova's neighbor, Kurmanguli Kunanbaev, uses an electric heater around-the-clock. It's the only way to heat the three-room apartment where Kunanbaev lives with his family, including two young grandchildren.
The family just received an electricity bill for January for nearly $90, more than three times as much as usual. Such a cost is a big dent in the budget of many households in the working-class city where the average salary is about $610 a month.
"I used to pay about $22 to $26 a month for electricity [during the winter], but the bill went up to $89 last month," Kunanbaev said.
Other residents in the apartment blocks have similar concerns. Some of them want the government to write off their electricity debts this winter since they are forced to use the electric heaters to make their homes livable.
According to local media, of Ekibastuz's 689 multistory buildings that rely on central heating, 71 of them were completely cut off from the system due to the November crash.
The accident was largely blamed on outdated, worn-out infrastructure that was in dire need of renovation. There have been allegations that corruption and negligence also played a role in the crash. The government has ordered a probe.
Prior to the accident there had been several warnings by experts, residents, and activists about what they described as an imminent crash if urgent measures weren't taken to modernize the Soviet-era infrastructure of the heating system.
But the warnings were ignored by the Central Asia Electric Power Corporation, which owns the Ekibastuz power plant and several other similar stations in northern Kazakhstan.
Just days after the plant shut down, authorities announced that heating had been restored to most affected homes.
But locals say the heating system still hasn't been fully back to normal, and many heat pipelines froze and burst after the crash, leaving many homes without heating and/or water.
In some neighborhoods, residents wrapped the pipelines with blankets and other materials to try to prevent them from freezing as the region has experienced one of its coldest winters in decades.
Outdated pipelines, boilers, and other parts of the infrastructure continue to cause heating blackouts in the city.
Authorities have said a major overhaul is being planned to modernize the heating system. Work, however, will not start until after the winter, officials said. The winter heating season in Ekibastuz usually begins in mid-October and ends in mid-April.
City authorities have already warned residents that their apartments won't have hot water for months during the renovation period. That means households must use even more electricity to heat water.
In the Satpaev neighborhood, pensioner Zelyonova says the $44 electricity bill she received a few days ago is "a colossal amount of money" that people like her simply cannot afford.
Some of her neighbors have temporarily moved to nearby cities, like Aqsu and Pavlodar, to avoid living in their own freezing apartments and paying sky-high electricity bills. Others are staying with relatives who live in houses in Ekibastuz.
After the Ekibastuz accident, the government in Astana acknowledged that the Central Asian nation of some 19 million faces an acute problem with outdated power plants across the country.
The Energy Ministry said 19 of Kazakhstan’s 37 power stations are in an "emergency" condition and urgently need to be refurbished. According to estimates by the ministry, some $400 million is needed for the renovations.
