Aral-Syrdarya basin declined by 38% - Ministry of Water Resources

The average annual river runoff in Kazakhstan has decreased by 12.5 cubic kilometers since 1960. This is what Deputy Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Bekniyaz Bolat said it at the meeting of the Water Sector Development Coordinating Council today, Kazinform News Agency reports.

Of this, 72% or 9 cubic kilometers are local rivers and 3.5 cubic kilometers are transboundary rivers.

“The reduction in the local rivers runoff has been recorded in all basins except for the Balkhash-Alakol and Tobyl-Torgay basins,” said Bolat Bekniyaz.

Meanwhile, the country remains highly dependant on transboundary waters. Thus, the Aral-Syrdarya basin, which borders Uzbekistan, is in a critical condition - the volume of water here has decreased by 38% or 10.2 cubic kilometers. Next comes the Shu-Talas basin, where water volume has fallen by 32% or 1.3 cubic km.

“The most vulnerable basins are the Aral-Syrdarya, Shu-Talas and Zhaiyk-Caspian basins,” the deputy minister emphasized.

According to him, the ministry offers a number of activities to prevent possible water scarcity.

The first one is the reconstruction of water infrastructure. The ministry plans to reconstruct the systems with a volume of 3.7 cubic kilometers and 14,450 kilometers of canals as part of the program of development of the country's water regions for 2024-2028. Design documentation has been developed for more than 100 projects.

The second one is the adoption of a new water code, which will stipulate measures to effectively use water resources and implement water saving technologies. The Committee on Regulation, Protection and Use of Water Resources was set up to fight black market of water.

International cooperation: Kazakhstan has signed 10 memorandums with the Netherlands, France, Germany, China and Israel. The authorities plan to train water professionals in cooperation with the Netherlands and carry out researches on Lake Balkhash together with France.

Flood modeling: The Kazakh ministry, together with the Ministry of Digital Development, develops a system of flood forecast and modeling.

Water saving technologies. The amount of subsidies for the installation of water-saving systems has been increased from 50% to 80%, which will enable to save up to 2.2 million cubic meters of water by 2030.

Joint events: The ministry actively interacts with the international partners and has held more than 100 meetings for discussing transboundary water facilities.

Earlier, Kazinform reported about establishment of the Water Sector Development Coordinating Council