In recent years, it has been the only province to lose population, shrinking by about 1percentt a year.
The region suffers disproportionately from Russia's demographic curse a 142m-strong population shrinking by 700,000 a year because of low birth rates and vodka-sodden ill-health.
By way of example, Ibrahim points to Butana village's population shrinking from 72,000 to about 12,000 seasonally, and the resulting conflicts over grazing lands or services in swelling cities.
But he said that if Mr. Saleh's departure raised hopes for rapid change, the country's rampant unemployment and poverty, growing population, shrinking oil revenue and dwindling water supply would remain.
And it is up to residents and town leaders like Mr. Chila, who today is township mayor, to figure out how to maintain the small-town quality that drew them to Woolwich in the first place while dealing with more immediate problems such as a growing school population, shrinking water supplies, sewage disposal and police and fire protection.
"With the population shrinking, we need to tap into women in order to generate capable engineers in the future," said Toshio Maruyama, executive vice president for education and international affairs at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, or TiTech, one of the leading science schools in Japan.
