Water Unites

Kazakhstan
B A S I C I N F O R M AT I O N
Total area
Irrigated land
Population (2011)
Population growth
Median age
Gross domestic product
per capita (2010)
2 724 900 km 2
35 560 km 2
16.6 mln
Kazakhstan is the largest of the Central Asian
countries. More than two-thirds are covered
by deserts and semi-deserts; the rest is mainly
steppes and low hills, with some high mountain
ranges at the eastern and southeastern
borders.
Kazakhstan has 48 800 lakes and reservoirs.
The largest inland body of water is
Lake Balkhash (18 810 km²), which consists of
a western part with fresh water and an eastern
part with salt water. The average depth of the lake is only six meters. The country
has eight river basins with over 7 700 rivers. The biggest ones are the Syr Darya, the
Irtysh and the Ishim (flowing into Russia), the Ural (flowing from Russia), Chuo and
Talas (flowing from Kyrgyzstan). Seven of the eight basins are transboundary. The main
water inflow comes from Kyrgyzstan, China, Russia and Uzbekistan. Almost half of the
surface water available in Kazakhstan (about 100.5 km³) originates in one or more of its
neighbouring countries.
The Kazakh part of the Syr Darya Basin stretches along 1 127 km from the Shardara
reservoir on the border to Uzbekistan, through the southeastern part of the country to
the Aral Sea. Seventeen percent of the Kazakh population lives in this basin, most in rural
areas. Thus, only a small part of the country belongs to the Aral Sea Basin (345 500 km²
of 2 224 400 km²). Nevertheless, being a downstream country, Kazakhstan relies on
timely water discharge from the upstream water reservoirs in Kyrgyzstan and the passage
through Uzbekistan during the growing period. As these releases could not always
be ensured, Kazakhstan built the Koksaray reservoir. With this additional reservoir just
downstream from the Shardara reservoir, it is able to store water released in winter until
spring and reduce harmful winter floods downstream, as well as dependence on upstream
water releases. While these measures have eased the situation at the lower reaches of
the Syr Darya in Kazakhstan, they present a risk for the Aydar-Arnasay lakes system in
Uzbekistan. This is a wetland that has emerged from overflow of water in winter from the
Shardara and drainage water and serves as an important habitat for water birds. In addition,
a newly built reservoir allowed Uzbekistan to use the overflow water for irrigation.
With the Koksaray reservoir, Kazakhstan can store the previously released water itself for
later usage or flow into the Aral Sea, putting this newly created but ecologically important
wetland at risk. Therefore, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have reached an agreement on
an annual minimum flow. Kazakhstan has undertaken considerable efforts to revive the
Northern Aral Sea (see p.20/21). For Kazakhstan, the situation in the Ili-Balkhash Basin is
of much greater concern than that of the Syr Darya. This basin is shared with China, which
is increasing its water usage, putting the fragile ecological balance of Lake Balkhash at risk.
Kazakhstan is endowed with abundant natural resources, including significant
deposits of oil, natural gas, uranium, chromium, lead, zinc, manganese, and copper. Oil
1.4%
29 years
$ 8 764
34 Kazakhstan