Northern Aral Sea recovering
A billion cubic meters of water, which is 100 million more than the volume planned before were sent to the North Aral Sea from October 2024 to January 2025,El.kz reports citing the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation.
According to agreements with the Central Asian states, by the end of March 2025, an additional 1.6 billion cubic meters of water will be supplied to the Northern Aral Sea.
It is expected that the volume will reach 23.4 billion cubic meters by the end of 2025, while at the beginning of 2022 this figure was 18.9 billion cubic meters.
The area of the North Aral Sea also continues to expand: today it is 3065 square kilometers, which is 111 square kilometers more than in 2022.
The water salinity level is decreasing, and the population of 22 fish species has been restored. The annual volume of fishing has reached 8 thousand tons.
The introduction of water-saving technologies plays an important role in saving the ecosystem.
In the Kyzylorda region, leveling of rice fields saved 200 million cubic meters of water, which allowed to increase average yield from 40-55 centners to 70-80 centners per a hectare.
To support farmers, the amount of subsidies for the installation of water-saving systems has been increased from 50% to 80%, and compensation for the cost of irrigation water in some cases reaches 85%.
At the same time, the greening of the Aral Sea drained bottom is underway, with 4.4 million seedlings planted.
By the end of the year, the total area of landscaping will reach 1.1 million hectares.
From January 1, 2024, Kazakhstan headed the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea (IFAS), and Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, has been elected the President of the IFAS until 2026.
Within the framework of the chairmanship, a Plan of 40 measures aimed at improving the state of the sea and developing the region was approved.
The implementation of these initiatives will provide jobs for about 2000 people, reduce the level of water salinity, restore biodiversity and improve the environmental situation.
Subscribe to our Telegram channel and be the first to know the news!