The joint use of international water resources is a complicated and delicate issue requiring understanding and insight. Alike are the problems of the trans-boundary Irtysh River with grave hydro-economic and ecological consequences. How can they be averted? This was the topic of my interview with “Kazhydromet” scientists - Valeriy Lee, the head of the hydrologic research and estimates department, Cand.Sc. (Engineering) and Vsevolod Golubtsov, a senior research fellow of the department, an expert with Global ecological fund, Cand.Sc. (Geography).

-To begin with, what is the Kara-Irtysh like and is it important that it starts in the neighboring state?

V.L.: The Irtysh is formed by the confluence of the Kara-Irtysh and Ku-Irtysh, the source of which is in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on the glaciers of the Mongolian Altai’s south-western slopes. Before it flows into Lake Zaysan it is named Kara-Irtysh. In Kazakhstan its flow is measured at the village of Buran near the Kazakh-PRC frontier. The long-standing average annual flow is 9.5km3 and it is mainly formed in China.

- China’s consumption of water is much said to reduce the Irtysh flow. Do you have exact figures?

V.G.: Our neighbor alone can tell it. At present we have no data on water consumption in the upper course of the Kara-Irtysh from China and it balks the solution on filling of reservoirs of Buhtarma, Ust-Kamenogorsk and Shulbinskaya HPPs and the releases to flood the river meadows in Semipalatinsk and Pavlodar oblasts. In the late 1990s Kazakhstan public and media were concerned with the construction of Kara-Irtysh-Karamai canal in China for the abstraction of 40% water resources of the river, as declared by the Chinese side. And it is true, that in the last decade of the past century the water abstraction grew and the river flow reduced.

-Are any measures taken to detect the Kara-Irtysh flow’s reduction caused by water consumption in China?

V.G.: “Kazhydromet” hydrologists permanently monitor the Kara-Irtysh flow. The reduction of its flow from China started in the 1990s. Up to 2005 it was 1.1-1.8km3 a year. In the past years (2006-2008) the flow reduction caused by its consumption in China grew by 2.5-3.5km3 a year making around 25km3 of total reduction of Kara-Irtysh water resources in Kazakhstan from China from 1990s to 2008.

-Do you think China’s water abstraction can exceed 4km3 a year?

V.G.: In 2009 it was 5.0-5.5km3, i.e. the Kara-Irtysh natural flow of 11.0-11.4km3 was reduced by 5.5km3 (almost by 50%) which led to the negative aftermaths in the Irtysh basin in our republic. Earlier this year Russian media reported possible water abstraction in China can reach 8km3 a year. It will be disastrous for the river’s basin in Kazakhstan and possibly reduce water resources in the Russian Federation.

-How can these aftermaths endanger water supply and eventually the region’s life?

V.L.: They will hamper water supply of Pavlodar, Karaganda and Akmola oblasts and such big industrial centers as Ekibastuz, Temirtau and Karaganda; Astana’s development in the near future will require significant water resources for the city and its industrial infrastructure. As the oblast’s own water resources are scarce, in the near future they will fail to meet the region’s demands. It then will turn to the Irtysh water as the only source of additional water supply of the capital to be delivered here via Satpayev canal after its reconstruction.

-What should be done, in your opinion, to prevent negative consequences for the Irtysh river ecosystem and its adjacent territories?

V.L.: Speed up basic agreements with the PRC together with the Russian Federation on joint use of water resources of the Kara-Irtysh within an agreement on the utilization and protection of trans-boundary rivers. And certainly there should be accurate estimates and forecasts. No systematic research of the Kara-Irtysh trans-border issues was conducted in the past years. “Kazhydromet” can assess water consumption in China and its influence on the river’s channel balance and the level mode of reservoirs for long-tern regulation given sufficient funding by the ministry for environmental protection and the agriculture ministry’s water resources committee.

All these measures can help stave off or prevent disastrous hydro-economic and ecological consequences of the Irtysh water resources’ reduction.

Interviewed by Olga Malahova

Almaty