Kyrgyz, Uzbek Sides Step in to Prevent Floods in Kazakh South

Excerpt from report by Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency

Shymkent, 21 February: Today, within the framework of intergovernmental agreements, Kyrgyzstan reduced the volume of water discharged from the Toktogul reservoir to lessen the inflow of water into the Chardara reservoir and the River Syr Darya in the south of Kazakhstan.

"The Kyrgyz side reduced the discharge of water from Toktogul by 150 cu.m. per second on Thursday [21 February], while the Uzbek side has opened locks to increase the volume of water flowing into the Arnasoy hollow [in central Uzbekistan]," the chairman of the committee for water resources of the Kazakh Ministry of Agriculture, Anatoliy Ryabtsev, said at a meeting at the governor’s office of South Kazakhstan Region [SKR], attended by Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Masimov, in Shymkent (administrative centre of SKR) on Thursday [21 February].

Moreover, Ryabtsev recalled that "the Uzbek side has started to draw off water for irrigation in midstream" of the River Syr Darya.

"As a result, we expect that the volume of water flowing into the Chardara reservoir will decrease up to 1,100-1,200 cu.m. per second in the coming days," he said.

However, Ryabtsev said, "we will continue now to discuss increasing the discharge" of water into [Uzbekistan's] Arnasoy.

He expressed the hope that, as a result, water discharged into the River Syr Darya [by the Kyrgyz reservoir] would be reduced to 500 cu.m. per second.

In his turn, the governor of SKR, Nurgali Ashimov, said at the meeting that the thaw causes an increase in the volume of water flowing into the River Syr Darya from the River Arys. In this connection, he said, if the volume of water discharged into the River Syr Darya is not reduced, a devastating flood may occur in the region’s Otrar District.

[Passage omitted: background; known facts about recent floods in SKR]

Originally published by Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency, Almaty, in Russian 1621 21 Feb 08.

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