Machine guns at Russian wells?

18.08.2010 — Analysis

In 2010, the Ekaterinburg city officials began planning to bring an enormous amount of water across the Ural Mountains, more than 80 million cubic meters. This water project will cost 200 million rubles. But money isn't even the main problem. The Nyazepetrovsk reservoir is not infinite. If dry weather continues until next year, Ekaterinburg could find itself faced with a water catastrophe. There are two solutions - look for new sources of groundwater or build new reservoirs.  

"All the water in and around Ekaterinburg is polluted, so any new reservoir would have to be built fairly far away. The construction itself will cost billions of rubles, plus you have to add the cost of pumping the water. Hydrogeologists have offered to develop the Nizhneserginsky groundwater source, but no solution has been found as yet. If the drought doesn't end, restrictions may be introduced on water consumption," Olga Getmanskaya claims.

A Sahara in the Urals

Even officials in the Chelyabinsk region are concerned enough to be looking for new water supply sources. The towns of Zlatoust and Miass have been hardest hit by the drought, Magnitogorsk less so. The decline of water sources in Zlatoust has forced the introduction of extreme measures. The supply of cold water to consumers is limited during the night and no hot water is available at all.

There is no water shortage as yet in Chelyabinsk and the smaller towns surrounding it. "The Argazinsky reservoir still has enough water for at least 1½ to two years. Magnitogorsk also has enough water supplies for industrial use. The situation with drinking water is more complicated. But some slight rainfall and water from neighboring Bashkortostan has eased life for a while for the city's residents. But in Zlatoust, unless there is some heavy rain, water will have to be pumped out of the Novozlatoustovsky lake. Right now in Miass they are trying to resolve the issue of using water sources from the border area with Bashkortostan as well as groundwater resources. Thanks to this water, the Iremelevsky reservoir has managed to refill a bit. "But the big question is - what water will the city have left by next spring and summer?" Vladimir Sereda, the head of the water resources department for the Chelyabinsk region's lower Ob river basin water office, posed this question to RusBusinessNews.

According to him, the many lakes in Chelyabinsk are unsuitable for residential water use because 90% of them have poor-quality water. In addition, the lakes are part of a closed ecological system and any interference in this system could have irreversible environmental consequences. "Taking water from the lakes would really be a last resort. But it's possible that we might have to draw water from Lake Turgoyak," noted Vladimir Sereda.

By the way, a canal was dug in 1975 from Lake Uvilda to the Argazinsky reservoir in order to solve the water shortage in the South Urals. During that drought, the water level in Lake Uvilda declined by four meters and did not return to normal for 31 years. It was during that same period that attempts were made to include the Chelyabinsk lakes in Ekaterinburg's water supply system and, as a result, several of them were completely "consumed."

Vladimir Sereda is convinced that South Ural cities like Ekaterinburg require plentiful water supply reserves. It is also essential to curtail industrial access to drinking water sources, which accounts for 10-15% of water consumption. His views are echoed by Professor Aleksandr Popov, who works for the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Russian Research Institute on the Integrated Use and Protection of Water Resources. He claimed that after the public corporation Nizhy Tagil Iron and Steel Works stopped squandering the drinking water supplies 35 years ago, those supplies turned out to be fully sufficient for the residents of Nizhny Tagil.

The Kurgan region might suffer more than any other in the Urals next year. "Mainly we have lakes, and most of those are saltwater. We have very few rivers. And there aren't enough groundwater sources in the eastern and southern parts of the region," explained Anatoly Ovechkin, the head of the water resources department for the Kurgan region's lower Ob river basin water office.

The primary water supply sources in the Trans-Ural region are the Tobol river and the Kurgansky reservoir. The Kurgansky reservoir provides water to consumers in the city of Kurgan and a number of other municipalities. The reservoir is filled by water inflows from Kazakhstan. For now, the neighboring country is able to keep up with the water appetite of the residents of Kurgan. But if water should run short in Kazakhstan, the Trans-Ural capital will be in trouble. Local weather forecasters have predicted that by September the water level in the reservoirs will be 5-10% lower than the month before.

Anatoly Ovechkin thinks that Kugan might feel the lack of water very soon, by January or February of 2011. He says that the authorities in the Kurgan region were planning to build a reservoir, but after they calculated the costs, the idea was dropped. Now they are searching for a new water source. But even assuming they can find one, the capital of the region could face catastrophic thirst while they are looking.

Water worth its weight in gold

But a number of experts think that it would be worth fixing up the housing and public utilities sector before taking a shot at such expensive projects. Up to 40% of the water is lost while being transported between the source and the consumer! For example, of the 2,000 km. of pipelines in the Kurgan region's municipal water supply system, 986 km. are decaying. Up to 60% of the water pipelines in the Sverdlovsk region are worn out. A total of 113 million cubic meters of water (22%) was lost in 2009. One would think that it would be cheaper to replace the pipeline system than to pump in water from Chelyabinsk. 

Russians are going to have to learn to save water. Europeans have been doing this for a long time, and, in view of the global water shortage, the need for this practice is becoming self-evident. Viktor Danilov-Danilyan, a leading Russian scientist, is convinced that by 2030-2040, the worldwide scarcity of water will have become catastrophic on a level "comparable to the aftermath of world wars." International water conflicts have already become common, between, for example, Jordan and Israel.

A similar conflict on a smaller scale happened in the Sverdlovsk region. The inhabitants of the village of Novoipatovo near Ekaterinburg rose up to defend the Boevka river, from which Chinese farmers were pumping water to irrigate their vegetable fields. When temperatures began soaring, the Chinese installed pumps in the stream of the river. Immediately the water levels dropped in the wells the local residents use for bathing and watering their gardens. Now those residents are almost ready to take up arms in their fight for the Boevka. Whatever may happen there, Russia is entering the global struggle for access to water.

Marina Sirina