The Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation of Kazakhstan said it had sent 977 million cubic meters of water to the Aral Sea during this year’s irrigation season, or 98% of the plan.
In recent years, only 350-400 million cubic meters of water flowed into the sea during irrigation seasons.
Since the beginning of this year, the North Aral Sea has received more than 2 billion cubic meters of water. The ministry plans to send another 500 million cubic meters until the end of the year.
According to Deputy Head of the Aral-Syrdarya Basin Inspectorate Zeinolla Kaztoganov, today the volume of water in the North Aral Sea is 22 billion cubic meters. In previous years, 7-10 cubic meters of water per second flowed into the sea during irrigation seasons. This year the inflow increased almost tenfold — to 60-70 cubic meters per second.
This has had a positive impact on fisheries, as the salinity of the North Aral Sea has decreased and the fish population has increased. In previous years, local fishermen used to catch some 400 tons of fish a year. Now, they catch 7,500-8,000 tons of fish.