Residents of Ust-Kamenogorsk report rats near garbage containers, in yards and on playgrounds. Since the start of 2026, the city's sanitary-epidemiological control department has received 20 complaints about rodents. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.

On social media, residents are posting videos of rats encountered in various districts of the city, even during the day. Residents of Potanina Street, Nazarbayev Avenue and Burova Street write that rodents run near homes and garbage bins.

"The whole city is in rats! Today on the way home from work (in 5 min!) 4 !!! of them darted in all directions in front of me! This is not the outskirts of the city, Potanina Street," wrote anzhelika_dikanskikh.

According to another resident, neighbors from four apartment buildings have already independently called a company to treat the territory. However, rats continue to be spotted in the yard, including near a children's playground.

"We have them not only at the garbage site, but in yards and basements too. We treated them ourselves as four buildings, called a company. Cold weather is coming, they are multiplying with arithmetic progression. Moreover, they behaved in the yard without fear of people. Children run and play, and they catch pigeons, rummage through trash bins. Our children's playgrounds are filled with food products by evening and these tailed creatures have a feast all over the yard," states permiakova6964.

The city sanitary-epidemiological control department reported that since the start of the year, 20 complaints about rodents have been received through "e-Өtinish". Some applications related to city territories were forwarded to the housing and utilities department.

Among the addresses where the situation causes the greatest concern, the department named K. Satpayev, M. Auezov and N. Nazarbayev avenues, as well as Potanina, Myza and S. Nurmagambetov streets.

Specialists consider insufficiently effective treatment of territories, untimely garbage removal, spontaneous dumps and cluttering of container sites as the causes of the spread of rats. At the same time, in 2025–2026, no infectious diseases associated with rodents were registered in the city.

OSI and KSK are responsible for deratization of basements, parking lots and other common property of apartment buildings. If rats appear in these premises, residents need to contact the building management body. If the application remains unanswered, a complaint can be sent to the housing inspection.

Rodents at a container site should be reported to the city housing and utilities department, and violations of sanitary norms — to the territorial sanitary-epidemiological control body. An application can also be submitted through "e-Өtinish".

The housing relations department clarified that treatment of garbage containers is not the responsibility of OSI or KSK if the site does not belong to the common property of the building. At the same time, the housing and utilities department believes that treatment of container sites must be carried out together with deratization of basements.

After residents' complaints, container sites were included for the first time in the list of territories for rodent treatment in 2025. For deratization of all such sites in 2025–2026, 14 million tenge was allocated, the housing and utilities department reported.

The first stage of treatment this year took place from March 30 to April 25. The second began on August 28, earlier than planned. Each stage provides for three-time placement of bait with an interval of seven days. The effectiveness of treatment, according to the department, is checked by Joldordezinfektsiya – Pavlodar LLP.

The housing and utilities department also acknowledged the problem of overflowing garbage bins. Among the causes, they named violations of the waste removal schedule and the storage in containers of leaves, branches and other garbage not related to solid household waste.