Lake Balkhash: the Aral Sea Revisited?

Lake Balkhash, in southeastern Kazakhstan, may be on its way to the same fate as the Aral Sea, which was decimated by the diversion of two major rivers, the Syr Darya and the Amu Darya, so that the old Soviet Union could grow cotton in the desert (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aral_Sea). The Aral Sea's surface area is about 25% of what it was in 1960, and the sea has actually split into two lakes, the North Aral Sea and the South Aral Sea. I should note that the North Aral Sea is starting to recover, thanks to increased inflow and the completion of a dam across its southern portion to isolate it compeletly from the South Aral Sea. The fishery is also recovering. So stay tuned.

Lake Balkhash (www.grid.unep.ch/activities/sustainable/balkhash/index.php), not to be confused with the much larger, deeper, and more famous Lake Baikal (whc.unesco.org/en/list/754/ and www.unep-wcmc.org/sites/wh/baikal.htm), about 1600 km north, is large (17,000 square kilometers) but not very deep (average depth = 6 m, maximum depth 26 m, volume = 106 cubic kilometers). Compare it to Lake Baikal, which holds 20% of the earth's fresh unfrozen surface water (23,000 cubic kilometers) and is the deepest (1,700 m) and oldest (25 million years) lake in the world. The Balkhash basin is endorheic, which means there is no surface outflow other than by evaporation and transpiration.

Lake Balkhash has a drainage basin about the size of California - 413,000 square kilometers; about 85% of it is in Kazakhstan and 15% in China. The western arm of the lake is fresh, whereas its eastern arm is saline. Seven major rivers feed it - indeed, the land south of the lake is known as the "Land of Seven Rivers". Of the seven rivers, the ones that experience the most diversions are the IIi and the Karatal.

In its 8 March 2007 edition, the New York Times(www.nytimes.com/2007/03/08/world/asia/08kazakhstan.html?ex=1174363200&en=bd466a54651d15ef&ei=5070&emc=eta1)

reported that China and Kazakhstan are wrangling over the lake. At a recent conference, the two countries tried to map out an economically and environmentally sustainable plan for the lake. Kazakhstan wants to keep the rivers that head in China and feed the lake from being diverted to rice, cotton, and sugar farms and for drinking water. China's "Go West" policy is encouraging people to move to its Xinjiang region, and that will only exacerbate water use. China would not buy into a plan that would swap its water for free/subsidized food from Kazakhstan for 10 years.                  

Kazakhstan is not entirely blameless, as 20% of its people rely on the lake for drinking water and agricultural and industrial facilities have polluted the lake. Water is also diverted for irrigation.

The article reported that Kazakhstan's President Nazarbayev urged partcipants to adopt conservation strategies.

Let's hope that reason prevails, and that we won't soon be writing the obituary of Lake Balkhash. But time is indeed running out.

"In the world there is nothing more submissive and weak than water. Yet for attacking that which is hard and strong, there is nothing that can surpass it." -- Lao-tze, 6th century BC