Kazakh President Proposes Reviving Siberian Rivers Diversion Project

The Presidents of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Mazarbayev, and Russia, Dmitri Medvedev, discussed the great project that would divert water from north-flowing Siberian rivers to water Central Asia, at the 7th Forum for Interregional Cooperation in Ust-Kamenogorsk, eastern Kazakhstan, yesterday. This great project would take water from the Siberian River Ob and its tributary, the Irtysh, via the proposed Siberian-Aral (or Sib-Aral) canal, to the water-hungry Aral Sea region of Central Asia. (For more about this project, and its connection to the NAWAPA in North America, see the LPAC-TV video "NAWAPA Extended: A Eurasian Case-Study".)The project, under discussion in Russia for over a century and already in an advanced planning stage, was finally halted by environmentalists in 1986, during the era of Mikhail Gorbachov, but leaders of Central Asian republics, and Russian leaders such as Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, have refused to let the project die. The drying out of the Aral Sea, due to use of the water of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers for irrigation in Central Asia, is the single greatest environmental catastrophe on the earth.

Today, President Nazarbayev, sitting beside Medvedev, told the Forum: "Why not recall a project to divert the flow of Siberian rivers into the southern regions of Russia and Kazakhstan as we discussed today and yesterday? Over time, this problem may turn out very large [and] necessary to secure drinking water for the entire Central Asian region. Unfortunately today, the issues of water security have been left without proper attention.

"Unfortunately, the issue of water supply is not receiving the attention it merits. Nature has decided to remind us of this fact," Nazarbayev said after meeting Medvedev, Arab News reported today. "It's imperative that we set our governments the task of taking joint measures to find a solution to these problems. For example — as we discussed yesterday and today — why not revisit the project to divert water from Siberian rivers to the southern region of Russia and Kazakhstan?" This project could become "major and essential for the provision of drinking water for the entire Central Asian region," he said. "Attempts to resolve water issues locally, in specific regions, do not have the desired effect."

President Medvedev responded: "We are open to discussing ideas, including some ideas from the past that had been gathering dust." Advanced engineering plans for this project were drawn up in the 1980s. Russia has about 20% of the world's fresh water supply. The two nations signed agreements today, on rail transport and joint use and protection of trans-boundary water resources. President of Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin and President of the National Kazakhstan Railways Temir Zholy Askar Mamin signed a memorandum on mutual interaction of the Russian and Kazakhstani railroads, as part of the regional Customs Unions agreements.