WATER RESOURSES.
Pollution and Quality of Water
The water resources are a strategic,
vital natural resources having interstate importance. Kyrgyzstan has the
huge resources of underground and ground waters, the significant stocks
of which are in the rivers, eternal ice-houses and snow massifs.
More than 3500 rivers flowing on the territory of the republic supply
be water the contiguous states: Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tadjikistan, and
also Sinjan-Uigur autonomous region of China.
The annual drain of surface
waters is 50 milliard sq m/year. There is a significant amount of lakes
and other natural reservoirs with common area about 6697 sq km and with
common annual volume of water about 1745 milliard sq m on the territory
of the republic. It is necessary to note that 84% of lakes are located
at heights 3000-4000 m in regions of tectonic origin. Potential annual
stock of underground waters is 13 milliard sq. m, of ice-houses about 650
milliard sq m.
There are 13 artificial
reservoirs by a common area 378.2 sq. km and a volume of water 23.41 cu
km in Kyrgyzstan.
On the basis of the Intergovernmental Agreement of the countries of
Central Asia, the republic may use 24% of volume of a river source from
an annual source 50 milliard cu m (i.e. 12 milliard cu m).
The significant part (about
23%) of taken away waters is lost during their use. The reason consists
in unsatisfactory technical condition of irrigation and water-distributive
systems, wear of equipment, application of imperfect methods for watering,
absence water-saving technologies. In the last years, the stable tendency
of growth of unproductive losses of water is marked, and 90% from them
are losses in irrigative branch.
It is necessary also to
note a presence of steady process of reduction of ice accretion, the intensity
of which grows, causing change of aquaticity of a surface drain. Under
the forecasts, an area of ice accretion in the republic by 2025 will be
reduced on the average to 30-40%, that will result in reduction of aquaticity
on 25-35%.
Water in the republic is
divided on household, industrial and agricultural use. The consumption
of water on agricultural irrigation is 88% of general use (about 12% of
water is of household and industrial consumption).
The greatest alarm causes
technogenic pollution of water resources.
Threat to quality of surface water.
Annually, 900-1150 million cu m of various drains is removed in surface
water objects of the republic, from them 301-635 million cu m of waste
waters passes biological, physico-chemical or mechanical clearing. 0.42-0.75
million cu m per year of dangerously polluted waste waters are faulted
without clearing in open water reservoir and channels. The contents of
harmful substances in them in tens time exceeds the established norms.
:
An appearance of organic pollution,
petroleum, phenols and other harmful substances in water objects is connected
to inefficient clearing of urban municipal drains, drains of the enterprises
of meat, food and local industry, leather-processing and agricultural manufacture,
motor transportation enterprises.
Besides, 60-70% from a general
number of various complexes of clearing structures (by power more than
300 million cu m/year) are in a unsatisfactory technical condition and
do not provide of effective clearing of waste.
All this together creates
potential ecological danger for surface and underground of water of the
republic in future.
Observation of the republican sanitary-epidemic station in 1997 showed
that 14 % of water tests do not correspond to bacteriological norms, and
34% to physico-chemical norms.
Waters of basins of Chu and Sir-Darya rivers, rivers of Issyk-Kul Lake
are subject to pollution.. An increased contents of ammonium and nitrite
nitrogen, compounds of zinc, petroleum, organic and other harmful substances
is systematically observed here.
Threat to quality of underground water.
About 90% of drinking water
(for household needs) and a large part of water for industrial needs is
supplied from underground sources. A threat to quality of underground water
goes on the part of pollution of the top part of water-bearing layers.
The basic reasons of pollution
of underground waters are:
-
location of objects of stock-breeding in zones of sanitary water protection,
development of irrigated agriculture, a bad sanitary condition of populated
regions, an absence of systems of water supply and water drain;
-
location of numerous heaps and tail storages of waste of mining enterprises
in intermountain troughs and hollows, flood plains of rivers, containing
radioactive substances, salts of heavy metals, cyanogen-contained substances.
Examples of pollution of underground waters:
-
increase of concentration of nitrates up to depths of 150 m in the region
of Orto-Alish water supply ensuring Bishkek by 60% of drinking water;
-
pollution by nitrates and manganese because of outflow in the last of polluted
industrial drains from tail storages of hydrometallurgical factory of Kara-Balta
mining plant in south-west of Kara-Balta city;
-
increase of mineralisation and concentration of chlorates and sulphates
in the region of the gold-extracting factory "Makmalzoloto".
Pollution by nitrates, petroleum,
poison chemical substances are also marked in chinks in the south of Kyrgyzstan
(Osh-Karasui oasis, Kulgart valley, Takhten and Batken troughs, Tee-Moyun
plain).
Thus, increase of objects
of outbreaks of polluting substances in environment, unsatisfactory storage,
processing, utilisation of industrial and household wastes, a low culture
of agricultural manufacture have resulted in local pollution of open water
reservoirs and underground waters of Kyrgyzstan
