Water in North Aral Sea rises to 22bln m³ - ministry

Water volume in the North Aral Sea increased to 22 billion cubic meters, according to Moldir Abdualiyeva, Official Spokesperson of the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, Kazinform News Agency reports.

“During this irrigation season, Kazakhstan received from Kyrgyzstan 418 million cubic meters of water along the Talas River and 163 million cubic meters along the Shu River. Last year, Kyrgyzstan delivered 323.8 million cubic meters of water along the Talas River and 133.5 million cubic meters along the Shu River to Kazakhstan. Thanks to this we could increase water supply to the Aral Sea. This year, the North Aral Sea received nearly two billion cubic meters of water, while the total water volume in the sea reached 22 billion cubic meters,” Abdualiyeva said at a press conference in the Central Communications Service.

The speaker added that in recent years, water volume in the North Aral Sea had been decreasing, but since early 2024 it has started to rise again. And at the height of the irrigation period this year, up to 80 cubic meters of water per second flowed into the sea along the Syrdarya River (6 cubic meters per second last year).

In June, Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Nurzhan Nurzhigitov announced that the second stage of the North Aral Sea Preservation Project implemented in collaboration with the World Bank would start in 2024.

 “The project’s feasibility study has been almost completed. The project provides for increasing water volume supplied to the sea by 5 billion cubic meters. As a result, 1,000 square kilometers of the sea bottom will be covered by water which will let decrease dust and salt storms and stabilize delta lakes (Kamyshlybatskoye and Akshatauskoye lake systems),” the minister said.