Just a day after the opening of the Public Consultation Centre, several people asked us for help in a case of destruction of popular Café Ravil at the Caspian.
The café was one of the first at the seashore and part of it was located in a real historic ship. The operator was maintaining also surrounding area with garden and planted trees, that are quite unique in Aktau. The landowner – the municipality- decided to demolish the buildings, cut down the trees and construct a new sports field at the entire area. The plan was not discussed with the public and most of the people realized what is going on only at the very day when workers started to demolish the building and cut the trees down.
Through the social networks, large part of Aktau citizens were informed about the case and dozens of people were coming to Ravil to express their disagreement. Although no real direct or legal action has been carried out by the citizens themselves, the demolition works seemed to be slowed down. Report about this case has been published in many mass media. Public Consultation Centre decided to follow the case in coming days and try to defend at least the remaining trees. Unfortunately, the owner of the cafe did not allow volunteers to replant trees. Part of green space was destroyed during the demolition of the building, a large number of the trees survived.
