Kazakhstan faces human
and environmental tragedy
The vast, arid steppe of Kazakhstan in central Asia is facing a severe
water shortage due to lack of funding to keep its giant water-supply system operating. The
full implications of the crisis are spelt out in the latest issue (vol. 148 no. 4) of the
ICE/IAHR Water and Maritime Engineering journal.
The country’s huge water-basin transfer scheme was completed under Soviet rule in 1975
but the move to a market economy in the early 1990s saw the large state subsidies need to
keep it going start to dry up. The transfer scheme takes water from the river Irtysh at a
rate of 75 m3/s and pumps it 533 m vertically via 22 pumping stations (pictured) and a
1300 km canal system. The pumps alone consume 350 MW of electricity.
Lead author Professor Trevor Tanton of Southampton University says that sections of the
canal are soon likely to be abandoned, leading to collapse of irrigated agriculture,
pollution of existing watercourses and - as the local population seeks to develop
alternative supplies - destruction of the internationally significant Kurgaldzhino
wetlands.
http://www.ice.org.uk/navigation/index_news.asp?...ews/newsarticle.asp?page=344
ICE
11 Feb 2002
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