At the Government session chaired by Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov, the Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Nurzhan Nurzhigitov reported on a set of measures aimed at protecting against floods and improving the sustainability of water infrastructure.

To prepare for floods in 2025, 1395 hydraulic structures were examined in advance, 560 of which required repair. Today, 79 facilities have been restored, work continues on 46, and design and estimate documentation has been prepared for 18 more. A total of 261 dams with a total length of 590 kilometres have been built, covering 286 settlements. In six regions, 57 additional dam construction and reinforcement projects are being implemented.

Large-scale work is underway to clean riverbeds - 239 kilometres have already been cleaned, including on the Irtysh, Ural and Zhem rivers. Hundreds of water facilities have been transferred to the balance of municipal enterprises, which will improve their maintenance.

Digital technologies are being introduced to improve the accuracy of flood forecasts. For the first time, the Tasqyn system is being used to model flood scenarios in vulnerable areas, and the Talsim system is being used to forecast reservoir inflow volumes. The Esil and Nura river basins have already been modelled. 

The effectiveness of the new systems has already been proven in practice. 

"For example, the Talsim system on 11 April forecasted water inflow to the Astana reservoir in the volume of 91 cubic metres per second, the actual inflow was 97.2 cubic metres per second. In turn, the system ‘Tasqyn’ on the river Zhabai near the city of Atbasar modelled a possible flood scenario with a maximum peak on April 7 in the volume of 581 cubic metres per second, the actual flow was 567 cubic metres per second," Nurzhan Nurzhigitov said.

Digital modelling of all the country's water resources is planned by the end of the year.

According to the Minister, the water situation in Kazakhstan remains stable. At the beginning of March formed free capacity in reservoirs at the level of 14.4 billion cubic metres. Actual inflow was 6.6 billion cubic metres, with 3.5 billion released under managed regimes. All reservoirs are functioning in normal mode.

Special attention is paid to transboundary rivers where hydrological data is constantly exchanged with Russia and China.

The Minister noted that sporadic waterlogging in Akmola region is related to relief peculiarities and field runoff, rather than errors in the management of water systems.

#Floods #Government session #water resources

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