Lake Balkhash's Future Depends on China

While more and more international organisations are becoming involved in trying to stop Lake Balkhash from shrinking, NBCentralAsia observers say nothing will be effective unless China agrees to a sustainable water plan.



According to an RFE/RL report, the European Union is organising a conference in Almaty in late March to discuss increasing spending to save Lake Balkhash. The OSCE and UNESCO will also take part.



Balkhash, in south-eastern Kazakstan, is the second largest inland body of water in Central Asia after the Aral Sea. It is fed mainly by the river Ili, which flows from neighbouring China.



Kazak and international ecologists have been sounding the alarm for many years, warning that the lake is at risk of becoming severely polluted by industrial waste, and may even dry up altogether because of western China’s economic boom and rising consumption in Kazakstan are depriving it of water.



The EU organised a meeting between Kazak and Chinese experts on water sustainability on March 7, where the two sides signed a memorandum of understanding, but China has not yet signed the international treaty on cross-border water use.



Mels Eleusizov, head of the environmental movement, Tabigat (Nature), says Kazak and international environmentalists should focus on the Chinese part of the problem.



“Only a treaty with China and the involvement of the Kazak government can prevent an environmental catastrophe,” he said. “More and more crops along the Chinese stretch of the river Ili are being grown with pesticides. Industrial and domestic waste is also thrown into the river.”



Eleusizov added that Balkhash gets 80 per cent of its water from the river Ili, and if China draw off just 15 per cent of the river’s water, Balkhash will face environmental problems.



Eduard Poletaev, a political scientist and editor-in-chief of the Mir Yevrazii journal, agreed with this point, saying that China has not disclosed enough information about its water projects, or about how much water it intends to take from the Ili.



“All attempts by Kazak and international environmentalists to influence the situation in China either fall on deaf ears or run into diplomatic hurdles, making it hard to come to any precise conclusions,” said Poletaev.



(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)