Problems of Water Resources Management in the Drainage Basin of Lake Balkhash with Respect to Political Development

Abstract

Lake Balkhash is Kazakhstan’s second most important natural inland water reservoir, whose catchment basin is shared between the Republic of Kazakhstan (60% of the catchment’s area) and the People’s Republic of China (40% of the catchment). The lake is a source of fishery production and it serves as a means of transport, while the water of the catchment basin is extensively used for hydropower production, and irrigated agriculture and industry located in the Balkhash Lake basin. These socio-economic activities together with climate variability have strongly affected the lake’s hydrological regime during the last 100 years. The centralized, master plan-oriented management system and use of water regulation during the late Soviet era have been a major drawback to sustainable management of the lake, leading to a significant decrease in its water level and degradation of the surrounding wetlands. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the economic activity in Kazakhstan’s part of the Balkhash Lake basin rapidly diminished, causing the current broad rehabilitation of the whole ecosystem. Unfortunately, despite the benefit for the Balkhash Lake basin’s ecosystem accrued from the diminished anthropogenic impact in Kazakhstan, the basin’s existing management strategy of post-Soviet Kazakhstan faces several challenges that limit their effectiveness in the realization of sustainable development for the region. Moreover, a new challenge for sustainable development in the Lake Balkhash basin appears in the form of rising water consumption in the upper parts of the basin in China. This paper gives an overview of the change in the Lake Balkhash basin along with the political change in the area. The paper also illustrates problems regarding water resources management in the drainage basin of Lake Balkhash.