Балхаш-Алакольский бассейн

Или - исток реки находится в китайской части горного массива Тянь-Шань на высоте 3 540 м. Длина водоема составляет 1439 км, из них 815 км, пролегают через территорию Казахстана. Река Или впадает в озеро Балхаш, тем самым довольно сильно опресняя его. Крупными притоками Или, являются Тургень, Талгар, Курты, Чилик, Чарын, Усек. Река судоходна до границы с Китаем и выше по течению.
В водах Или обитает сазан и щука. По берегам и в камышах не редко встречаются ондатры, камышовые коты, жетысуйские фазаны, белоголовые журавли.

Rivers and Lakes

Kazakhstan contains an extensive network of rivers and several large lakes. Many of Kazakhstan’s rivers drain within the republic, although the Ishim, Irtysh, and Tobol rivers flow north into Russia and eventually drain into the Arctic Ocean. Due to dry weather conditions, the riverbeds of most of the republic’s small and medium-sized rivers remain dry for much of the year.

One of Kazakhstan’s largest rivers, the Syr Darya, enters Kazakhstan in the south and follows a northwesterly course toward the northern portion of the Aral Sea, a saltwater lake that straddles Kazakhstan’s border with Uzbekistan.

The Ural River, which flows south from Russia, enters northwestern Kazakhstan and drains into the Caspian Sea, a saltwater lake that is the largest inland body of water in the world. The Caspian borders five countries and delineates roughly half of Kazakhstan’s western border. Another large river, the Ili, enters Kazakhstan from China and drains into Lake Balqash, a large lake in the eastern part of the country. A dam that was completed on the Ili in 1970 has reduced inflow to Lake Balqash, causing the lake’s surface level to lower. Other large lakes in Kazakhstan include the freshwater lake Zaysan and the saltwater lakes Alakol and Tengiz.

Drying up of the Ili River might lead to ecological collapse in the entire Central Asian region.

Barges used to sail there once

The Ili, a biggest cross-border river, heads from Chinese part of Tien Shan mountains at an altitude of 3,540 m. Its length is 1439 km, 815 of which is in Almaty region, feeding the lake Balkhash. On the rational use of its water largely depends the socio-economic development of the Almaty region. The water of this river goes to irrigation land faming, energy, utilities, fishery and animal husbandry needs in rural districts. The Ili River has many tributaries, but unfortunately, most of them have dried up. Water experts ascribe such a situation to not only the evaporation due to global warming, but also the uncontrolled construction of sand extracting productions in the waterfront area.

The yearly declining water level leads to shallowing and salinization of Lake Balkhash. This break of water balance is fraught with serious consequences, an ecological disaster. It’s hard to believe that before 1995 the river was navigable, with barges sailing on it from the Kapshagai as far as the border with China. Paradoxically, this land of hundreds of rivers and lakes is running short of water.

Another risk factor in the region’s development is dramatically increased water drawing from the Ili by China, with its booming economy, building dams, developing agriculture in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR).

According to the Water Resources Committee with the Agriculture Ministry, last year flow on the Ili River from China to Kazakhstan decreased by 1.46 cubic km compared to 2011. At the same time, crop irrigation in our country took more than 2 billion cubic meters of water.

Experts say that ecological safety necessitates a very economical use of water, keeping in order the irrigation facilities to reduce water loss, water metering, which most of the land farmers cannot afford. Water saving technologies could partially address the problem, it is believed.

Besides, farmers, owners of game farms, disrupting the Water Code of the Republic, block the driveways to the water bodies by turnpikes making them their private property, constructing outbuildings, using the grounds for their cattle grazing. All that aggravates the situation still more.

Task of national importance

Every year, the regional budget allocates hundreds of millions of tenge for mechanized cleaning of the Ili delta and hydro networks repairs and replacement, but the pollution of rivers and lakes- over 800 of them in the region- goes on. The main polluters are rice producers, industrial productions, utilities, car washing lots and restaurants in the riparian zones. In 2011 the total industrial water discharge made 117.8 thousand tons. Naturally, it kills fish and damages flora and fauna.

-As the Ili delta is a natural regulator of the ecosystem in the region, prevention of its and of Lake Balkhash shallowing is not only the state, but also national-scale task, the ecologists say. Chairman of the “Tabigat” eco-union Mels Eleusizov says the situation is only aggravating; China is drawing water from the river in increasing amounts and does not sign the international convention on transboundary rivers. Now Balkhash, which 80% feeds on the inflow from Ili, holds on solely due to melting of glaciers, of which little is left too. The continuing drying up will increase saline areas, leaving another Aral on our hands in the place of the unique lake.