The Kazakh government is to build a new reservoir in its water-starved south in a move the government says will boost national security. The Koksaray reservoir will be constructed in South Kazakhstan Region, a government meeting decided on Tuesday.
“I believe that the water issue in southern Kazakhstan, in addition to its economic and social components, is also an issue of national security. That is why the decision on launching the construction of the Koksaray counter-regulator [of water] should be adopted today,” Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Massimov said at the cabinet session in Astana. “I would like to ask you to record in the minutes of the meeting that we have practically decided that Koksaray should be built.”
Kazakhstan needs to build a reservoir in the country’s south to counter-regulate the water levels of the existing Shardara reservoir, which fails to accommodate all water released by Kyrgyzstan into the Syr Darya river in winter to generate power at the Toktogul hydroelectric station. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan - as end-users of water which originates in the mountains in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan - have long been trying to set up a Central Asian water and energy consortium to regulate water issues. Poverty-stricken Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are calling on Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to pay them to maintain hydroelectric power facilities in their countries and to supply gas and coal to them in winter so that they can save water in winter to release it in spring and summer when it is needed for irrigation. However, rows over the amount and price of gas and coal to Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan and the price and amount of electricity Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan should buy from Kyrgyzstan often lead to gas supply interruptions for Kyrgyzstan and force it to release larges amounts of water to generate additional electricity to heat up its towns. This creates a problem downstream, flooding the lower reaches of the Syr Darya in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. The discharge of water in winter leaves Kyrgyz and Tajik reservoirs empty in summer, which means water shortages for irrigation.
A telling illustration of the problem are the floods in February and March 2008 which have displaced about 13,000 people and inflicted damages estimated at over $110m in southern Kazakhstan.
After facing this problem for several years running, it can be stated that Kazakhstan has made a positive decision as it moves ahead with attempts to resolve some of the problems that recur in winter and spring with floods and water shortages in the vegetation period. The construction of the new reservoir will have a great political, economic and social impact on southern Kazakhstan. Koksaray is expected to have a capacity of at least 2bn cu. m. of water and to cost around $500m, which will make it one of the greatest investment projects ever to be carried out in South Kazakhstan Region. In addition to preventing winter floods, the reservoir will be used, the cabinet session heard, for irrigation purposes and possibly for fishery and leisure activities.
The project will not be without technical difficulties; the reservoir’s dam will be 44 km long and it will require extra safety precautions to prevent dam breaches in the future. The Kazakh government also has concerns over water losses due to evaporation and filtration, which may stand at 300m cu. m. of water, and the new reservoir could potentially flood an area of some 500 sq. km.
Kazakh government officials are still not ruling out the establishment of a Central Asian water and energy consortium, but blame their neighbours’ reluctance, which has sparked the urge to build the new reservoir.
