Project for transferring part of the flow of northern and Siberian rivers. Chinese rivers reversed

Why did the USSR change its mind about turning Siberian rivers August 15th, 2016

30 years ago, on August 14, 1986, it was announced that the project for transferring water from Siberian rivers to Central Asia would be terminated. Against the backdrop of the deepening crisis of the Soviet economy, the then Asian republics of the USSR were offered to be content with a more rational use of the rivers available in the region. But decades later, talk about the Ob’s turn to the south began again more than once.

It's no secret that natural world The earth was created with a fair amount of sadism: in some places it is warm and long summer, millions of tons of corn and vegetables could be grown, but there is no water to water the fields. In other places there is water - even if it’s flooded, it’s summer “ one day I was at work"and nothing grows except cranberries and cloudberries. But since the Bolsheviks put forward the slogan “ not to wait for favors from nature, but to take them is our task", then in full accordance with it they decided to transform nature. The Karakum, Crimean and other irrigation canals built in the USSR should have faded before the real “project of the century” - the transfer of water from the Ob, Irtysh, and possibly the Yenisei to arid semi-deserts.

Scheme of the Siberian rivers turning project, Kapitän Nemo, Captain Blood
The project of transferring part of the flow of the Ob and Irtysh to the Aral Sea basin had a long history - it was first put forward by a Ukrainian publicist Yakov Demchenko(1868-1871), in 1948 it was proposed Stalin famous Russian geographer Vladimir Obruchev, in the 1950s - Kazakh academician Shafik Chokin.

But things started to get serious only in the mid-1960s.

The confluence of the Irtysh and Ob. From here the canal's route to Central Asia was supposed to begin, uritsk , 2016

Then the project was taken up by the USSR Ministry of Land Reclamation and Water Resources and it consisted of creating a huge system of canals and reservoirs from the confluence of the Irtysh and Ob to the Aral Sea. Along the way, water from the canal would water not only the southern regions of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, but also the regions of Russia suffering from summer droughts - Kurgan, Chelyabinsk and Omsk with their developed grain farming. Also, the canal could have shipping significance, connecting the Siberian and Central Asian rivers, the Aral, Caspian Sea and the Northern Sea Route. The length of the main shipping canal (it was supposed to be called “Asia”) was about 2550 km, width from 130 to 300 meters, depth - 15 meters. If Iran had joined the project, it would have been possible to connect this entire transport system to the Persian Gulf basin.

Turgai steppe of Kazakhstan. These arid areas were supposed to be watered by the canal from the Ob. varandej , year 2012

The work was carried out by more than 160 organizations of the USSR, including 48 design and survey and 112 research institutes (including 32 institutes of the USSR Academy of Sciences), 32 all-Union ministries and 9 ministries of the Union republics. 50 volumes of textual materials, calculations and applied scientific research, 10 albums of maps and drawings were prepared. It was assumed that the cost of the entire project (including the creation of new agricultural enterprises) would be 32.8 billion rubles, and it would pay off in just 6-7 years. In 1976, at the XXV Congress of the CPSU, a decision was made to begin work on the project; the first work on the ground began, which lasted ten years.

They were stopped only after coming to power Mikhail Gorbachev, when, against the backdrop of a deepening economic crisis, the Soviet government realized that there was no more money for such expensive projects. However, the decision was also influenced by environmental considerations - if the Siberian rivers turned south, part of the territories in the north would inevitably be flooded, and in the south they would suffer due to the rise of groundwater and the formation of salt marshes; unpredictable climatic changes could occur at a great distance from Caspian Sea to the Arctic Ocean. It can be noted for comparison that a similar “project of the century” existed in America - to transfer part of the water flow of the rivers of Alaska and Northwestern Canada to the south to water the arid regions of Canada, the USA and Mexico. It was actively developed in the 1950s, but then was abandoned for approximately the same reasons as in the USSR: too expensive, unpredictable consequences for nature.

The Aral Sea region, the route of the canal from the Ob was supposed to end here, varandej , year 2013

However, 15 years after the consequences of the collapse of the USSR had settled down, and the economies of the CIS countries began to get back on their feet, words were again heard about the need to return to the project of transferring the waters of Siberian rivers to Central Asia. The presidents of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, as well as the former mayor of Moscow, began lobbying for new projects Yuri Luzhkov.

Or would the canal go further to the Caspian Sea, through the arid lands of Uzbek Khorezm and the dry riverbed of the Uzboy? varandej , 2016

Connecting with the Caspian Sea somewhere here? alexey-mochalov, 2009

In May of this year, they started talking about the possibility of transferring part of the waters of Siberian rivers to the western regions of China. Head of the Ministry of Agriculture Alexander Tkachev then said: “ We are ready to propose a project for the transfer fresh water from the Altai region of Russia through the Republic of Kazakhstan to the arid Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. In the near future we will hold consultations with colleagues from Kazakhstan on this issue».

When designing this idiocy back in Soviet years It was already clear that this was another feeding trough for the Ministry of Water Resources and its structures.

1.The problems of Kazakhstan and Central Asia in the field of water resources are not problems of water shortage, but problems of illiterate water use (exceeding irrigation norms by 2-3 times, discharges to the wrong place, losses up to 70%).

2. The cost of water is very high - it will have to be driven uphill.

3. Consequences of the channel’s activities. The Great Karakum Canal in Turmenia caused a rise in groundwater with subsequent soil salinization at a distance of up to 150 km. If we take into account that much larger volumes were planned and the canal ran along the Turgai trough, where the rocks are salty marine clays, then everything around there will be a continuous salt marsh.

Currently in Kazakhstan there is no competent policy in the field of water resources. The Committee on Water Resources employs 34 people, of which 8 people are actually involved in water resources - they just physically don’t get much done, they only deal with turnover.

There is not a single hydrologist among the Committee staff (my classmate has already left, and he was the last one there). Most of them are land reclamation specialists, the rest are generally lawyers and economists...

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The diversion of the northern rivers, or rather, the transfer of part of the flow of Siberian rivers to Central Asia, was needed to solve the problem of shortage of fresh water in the southern regions of the country. In particular, it was stated that it was necessary to save the Caspian Sea from shallowing.

The main link in the project of turning the northern rivers to the south was the secret project “Taiga”. Nuclear scientists had to build a canal between the northern rivers Pechora and Kolva nuclear explosions. It was assumed that if the experiment was successful, many other canals would be built in the USSR in this way. Nuclear scientists were an influential force at that time, and they actually lobbied for this project. Thus, two problems were solved: the creation of a canal and nuclear tests.

In order to dig a canal, it was planned to carry out 250 explosions. Moreover, if the project had been implemented, water contaminated with radiation would flow from Perm to Astrakhan, poisoning everything in its path...

It is interesting that the level of the Caspian Sea began to rise sharply - by 32-40 cm per year - for objective reasons not related to human activity. It would seem that the need to turn the rivers back has disappeared. However, one of the largest environmental disasters of the 20th century broke out in the USSR. The Aral Sea, the fourth largest lake in the world, is beginning to dry up. This was due to the fact that the waters of the rivers that fed it (Amu Darya and Syr Darya) were actively used to water cotton plantations.

To save the Aral Sea and increase cotton production, the authorities decide to dig a canal... It will cut through the entire country - from Khanty-Mansiysk to the Aral Sea itself. He will transport the waters of the Irtysh and Ob to the dying lake. In addition, they were going to redirect the waters of the Yenisei and Lena to Central Asia.

However, experts noted that in order to drive water from Siberia to the Aral Sea (that is, from the bottom up), a huge amount of energy would be required and this project would bring more losses than profits. In addition, canals 200 m wide will block the natural migration routes of animals... In all rivers of Siberia, the amount of fish will sharply decrease - this threatens small indigenous peoples with starvation. The swamps of Western Siberia will begin to dry out. Finally, these initiatives will lead to water shortages in Altai, Kuzbass, Novosibirsk and Omsk. This project was opposed by the country's intellectual and cultural elite: a number of scientists, writers, etc.

Nevertheless, the authorities were determined to implement it. The Ministry of Water Resources, without waiting for the project to be included in the five-year plan, purchased equipment with the allocated money and began work on turning the rivers ahead of schedule.

During this period, Mikhail Gorbachev came to power. The economic situation begins to deteriorate, the country has debts unprecedented before. As a result, Gorbachev came to the conclusion that projects such as the reversal of rivers were no longer affordable for the USSR. Then he decided to shut down these initiatives under environmental pretext. It could also bring political benefits: Gorbachev allowed public debate on environmental issues, thus allowing a society that had accumulated irritation with the Soviet regime to let off some steam. On August 14, 1986, the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee decided to postpone the project and limit itself to scientific research on this issue.

The rapidly developing agriculture and industry, as well as the growing population of Northern China, are faced with an acute shortage of water due to the limited water resources of the region. To meet the demand for water, groundwater was used to supply industry and large cities, leading to water shortages in agriculture. In addition, the use of groundwater has led to land subsidence and frequent sandstorms.

China is suffering from thirst. A catastrophic shortage of water resources in the country's arid northeastern regions has begun to hamper their economic development, forcing the authorities to begin the largest engineering project in modern human history. By 2050, part of the Yangtze River flow will be transferred to the north of China using a system of hydraulic structures. Canals and aqueducts thousands of kilometers long, tens of billions of dollars and cubic meters of water...

Let's see how the Chinese, with varying degrees of success, are realizing the old dream of the Soviet communists by turning back the rivers.

China is home to about 20% of the world's total population, but fresh water reserves account for only 7% of the world's. Moreover, they are distributed unevenly across the vast country. While residents of the southern regions of China with the deep Yangtze River are more or less provided with water, the population of the North China Plain, between the Huaihe and Yellow Rivers, and this is up to a third of the total Chinese 1.3 billion people, regularly suffer from arid climate.

The Yellow River, the largest source of water in northern China, constantly dried up in its lower reaches in the 1990s. The measures taken by the Chinese government made it possible to more or less normalize the hydro regime of the Yellow River, however, even now its lower reaches are characterized by low water levels, which have an impact on Negative influence for the development of agriculture and industry in the country.

This is far from new problem for China. Back in 1952, Mao Zedong said: “There is little water in the north, but there is plenty in the south, so if this is possible, why not redistribute this water?” As is the case with other major Chinese projects, the implementation of the chairman’s conceptual ideas lasted for decades, outliving the author. Only in 1979, a special department was created in the country’s Ministry of Water Resources, the main task of which was to develop a plan to “turn Chinese rivers” from south to north.

The late Chairman Mao Zedong visiting the Huaihe River Commission at the Hefei Sewer Model in 1954. Work on the project began almost fifty years after Mao first proposed the idea.

50 years later, on August 23, 2002, after extensive research, design work and discussion, the project was approved by the State Council, which signaled the start of construction. And already in December, work began on the Eastern Canal, and a year later construction of the Central Canal began.

In fact, the Chinese government was choosing between two evils. In order to save the densely populated agricultural north from thirst and drought, it was necessary either to launch a program of mass resettlement of the local population to more climatically and hydrologically favorable southern regions, or, conversely, to somehow deliver water from the south to northerners suffering from water shortages.

Both projects required huge financial costs and long implementation times. The final choice may have been influenced to some extent by the technocrats who came to power in China in the late 1980s. Li Peng, Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China in 1988-1998, was educated as a hydropower engineer; the Chairman of the People's Republic of China in 2003-2013, Hu Jintao, also graduated from the Faculty of Hydraulic Engineering.

In the 1990s, the decision to implement the “diversion of rivers” was officially approved, and in 2002, half a century after Chairman Mao first voiced this conceptual idea, large-scale work, expected to last for decades, finally began to be implemented.

Strictly speaking, no literal “turning of the rivers” was intended. The plan involved transferring part of the flow of the southern Chinese Yangtze River and its tributaries to the northern provinces of the country using a system of hydraulic structures. On average, the annual water flow of the Yangtze at its mouth is about 950 billion cubic meters and even in the driest years does not fall below 600 billion cubic meters.

Of this colossal volume, only about 5% (on average up to 45 billion cubic meters per year) should go north at the end of the project (by 2050).

Within 48 years (from 2002 to 2050), the basins of the four largest Chinese rivers (Yangtze, Yellow River, Huaihe and Haihe) will be united by three grand canals: East, Central and West. This will significantly increase the full flow of North Chinese rivers, eliminate the risk of their drying out and provide resources to reservoirs near the largest cities in the north of the country - Beijing and Tianjin.

The project has existed for 50 years, from the inception of the idea to the start of construction. And it will take almost as many more years to finish it. The grandiose construction is planned to be completed by 2050. Ultimately, the project will provide the population of Northern China with 44.8 billion cubic meters of water per year.

Once construction is completed, China's four main rivers - the Yangtze, Yellow River, Huaihe and Haihe - will be interconnected. For this, three huge canals must be built, which will stretch from south to north along the eastern, central and western parts of the country. The estimated cost of the project is $62 billion. This is twice as much as the cost of the famous Sanxia (Three Gorges) hydroelectric power station.

Work on the first stage of the superproject began in December 2002. The Eastern Canal largely involved the use of the infrastructure of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, a unique hydraulic structure that was built over two thousand years (VI century BC - 13th century AD) and for the first time connected the Yangtze with the Yellow River.

A special limited liability company was created to oversee the construction, operation and maintenance of the canals, and water supply companies were created in each province to coordinate work with local administration and infrastructure elements.

Eastern Channel

The Eastern Canal was to supply Shandong and northern Jiangsu in 2007 - a year ahead of schedule - by linking the Yangtze River to Shandong and bringing life-giving moisture to the Huang Huai Plains using the Beijing-Hanzhou Grand Canal. , but construction was delayed.

Branching from the main channel of the Yangtze River near the city of Yangzhou, the water will flow through existing canals in the Wuyi Mountains, then under the Yellow River through a tunnel and into the Tianjin City Reservoir.

The length of the completed canal will be just over 1,155 km; construction involves the construction of 23 pumping stations with a capacity of 453.7 MW in addition to the 7 existing ones, which will be modernized.

This part of the project also includes almost 9 km of adits, starting at Lake Dongping with a siphon section 634 m long and ending at the Weiling Canal, two horizontal tunnels 9.3 m long and 70 m in diameter under the Yellow River bed.

Several key sections of the canal were completed in 2007. However, the launch of the canal was delayed due to agricultural and industrial pollution, which deteriorated the water quality.

Central Channel

Construction of the Central Canal began in December 2003. Its construction was planned to be completed before the start of the Beijing Olympic Games in August 2008, in order to provide Beijing with drinking water. However, by September 2008, only 307 km of the canal had been completed.

The neighboring city of Tianjin will also receive water from a pipeline running near the city of Xushui in Hebei Province. At an early stage, the channel will generate 9.5 billion. cubic meters of water, but by 2030 13-14 billion cubic meters of water will flow through this system.

The canal also includes two tunnels with an internal diameter of 8.5 m and a length of 7 km with a capacity of 500 m³/s.

Due to the decrease in water volumes in the Danjiangkou Reservoir, it is proposed to draw water from the reservoir of the Three Gorges Hydroelectric Power Station. This will support demand and meet the needs of this part of China.

Water from Hanshui has yet to go through a completed canal, but for now it is supplied from various reservoirs in Hebei Province. The Central Canal was planned to be completed by 2010, but the launch was delayed until 2014 due to environmental problems and expansion of the Danjiangkou Reservoir.

Western channel

Construction of the western canal on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau - at an altitude of 3,000-5,000 m above sea level - began in 2010 and is accompanied by the solution of major engineering challenges and seasonal problems. When completed in 2050, the project will deliver 4 billion cubic meters of water from three tributaries of the Yangtze - Tongtian, Yalongwan and Dadu - over a distance of 500 km through the Bayan-Khara-Ula mountains and further to northwest China.

In 2006, at a symposium in Beijing, officials from the Yellow River Water Resources Committee voiced preparatory stage work that needs to be done to speed up the construction of this part of the project. According to forecasts, by 2030, to maintain the economic growth of a region with a rapidly growing population, an additional 4.5 billion cubic meters of water will be needed for the development of large infrastructure projects.

Project financing

Construction costs for the eastern and central canals are estimated at 254.6 billion yuan ($37.44 billion). China has already allocated 53.87 billion for this project. yuan ($7.9 billion). From 53.87 billion. yuan, the central government will allocate 15.42 billion in treasury bonds from central government accounts worth 10.65 billion yuan, and local governments will contribute 7.99 billion yuan. Also, additional loans were raised in the amount of 19.81 billion. RMB

The cost of the project has changed sharply due to rising prices for raw materials, changes in national policy and investment structure of the project. About 30.48 billion yuan of the target amount was spent on the construction of the Eastern Canal (5.66 billion yuan) and the Central Canal (24.82 billion yuan).

Ecological problems

Like other major Chinese projects (such as the Three Gorges Dam), the river diversion project has led to a number of environmental problems, mainly related to the loss of ancient historical structures, displacement of people and destruction of grasslands.

In addition, plans for further industrialization along the canals pose a serious risk of water pollution.

To combat water pollution, the Chinese government has allocated just over $80 million to build sewage treatment plants in Jiangdu (Yangzhou), Huai'an, Suqiang and Xuzhou and eastern Jiangsu province, although estimates suggest the actual cost is more than double exceeds this figure.

In total, some 260 projects were designed to reduce pollution and help ensure that canal water meets minimum standards.

Key players of the project

The South-to-North Water Transfer Project is the owner of the project, and pre-project construction work is being carried out by Hanjiang Water Resources and Hydropower. Project management is currently carried out by the State Development and Planning Commission, the Ministry of Water Resources, the Ministry of Construction, the Department of Conservation environment and China International Engineering Consultant Corporation (GCW Consulting).

GCW Consulting provides infrastructure development plans. Haihe Water Resources Commission and Tianjin Hydroelectric Investigation and Design Institute are responsible for the development and design of the East Canal; "Changjiang Water Resources Commission" - the Central Canal, and "Yellow River Conservancy Commission" - the Western Canal. The construction of the East Canal is being carried out by Hanjiang Water Resources and Hydropower, and Danjiangkou Water Resources and Hydroelectric is constructing the Central Canal.

A unique new hydraulic facility here was an underground complex created at the intersection of the Grand Canal with the Yellow River. The waters of the Yangtze will cross the Yellow River using two underground water tunnels, each 9.3 meters in diameter and 585 meters long.

Then, by gravity, millions of valuable cubic meters across the North China Plain will eventually end up in a reservoir near Tianjin. Actually, supplying this particular metropolis, its agglomeration, as well as the densely populated Shandong province, one of the main agricultural regions of the country, is the main goal of the “turn of the rivers” in the east.

Work on the Eastern Canal lasted 11 years. The complex was put into operation at the end of last year. Its total length is 1,150 kilometers; up to a billion cubic meters of fresh water per year will be additionally transferred to northern China.

Unlike the Eastern Canal, which was based on pre-existing hydraulic infrastructure, the Central Canal was built from scratch. Work on it began at the end of 2003 and the ultimate goal was to organize water supply for Beijing and central Chinese provinces Hubei, Henan and Hebei.

The Central Canal begins in the Danjiangkou Reservoir, located on the Hanshui River, a major tributary of the Yangtze. The authors of the project calculated that from this point water could be delivered to the North China Plain, in the vicinity of Beijing, by gravity, which would avoid the construction of expensive engineering structures, such as pumping stations.

However, the central section of the “turn of the Chinese rivers” faced two difficult problems. The first of them was the need to cross the Yellow River, which was solved in exactly the same way as in the east - by building an underground tunnel-water conduit.

The second problem was much larger and required significant financial investments. In order to ensure natural gravity flow from the Danjiangkou reservoir towards Beijing, it was necessary to increase the water level in it from 157 to 170 meters. These additional 13 meters, of course, significantly increased the surface area of ​​the reservoir and thereby forced the country's leadership to begin a program of mass resettlement of residents from areas flooded by an artificial reservoir. The red line on the sign shows the water level after the flooding has ended.

According to various estimates, from 250 thousand to 330 thousand people were resettled to a new place of residence during the construction of the Central Canal - a figure, of course, much more modest than the 1.23 million forced migrants from the Three Gorges hydroelectric power station flood zone, but However, it required billions of dollars in investments from the authorities. In addition, dozens of large and hundreds of small enterprises were removed from the construction zone: potential sources of water pollution in the canal and reservoirs were eliminated.

Commissioning of the Central Canal is planned by the end of this year, 2014, although some of its sections are already functioning successfully. The total length of this hydraulic complex will be 1264 kilometers. On initial stage An additional 9.5 billion cubic meters of fresh water will be transferred to Beijing; by 2030, this figure will increase to 12-13 billion in average (non-dry) years.

Such a volume of flow taken from the Hanshui River in the future may cause it to dry out in areas below the Danjiangkou Reservoir. In this regard, Chinese engineers developed a project for an additional canal that would connect Danjiangkou with a similar and very high-flowing reservoir of the Three Gorges hydroelectric power station on the Yangtze. The construction of this structure in the future will dramatically reduce the load on the Han River and avoid a potential environmental disaster on the lands along its lower reaches.

The most ambitious element of the entire project to transfer water from the south of China to the north will be the Western Canal. Let us remind you that the “turn of the rivers” is designed to take several decades - the grandiose work should be completed only in 2050. At the same time, the eastern and central sections of the complex have already been largely completed. It is on the construction of the Western Canal that the Chinese leadership will focus its main attention in the next three-plus decades.

The main goal of the work in the west will be to connect the upper reaches of the Yangtze River with the Yellow River. Such a redistribution of water will make the Yellow River full again and restore normal water supply to industry and agriculture in the densely populated provinces along its banks.

About a third of China's water resources are concentrated in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, where the sources of the three main tributaries of the Yangtze in its upper reaches are located: the Yalongjiang, Tuojiang and Daduhe. It is the waters of these rivers that are planned to be partially redirected to the Western Canal. Its expected length will be “only” 500 kilometers, but the construction of the complex will take place in the most difficult mountain conditions at altitudes of 3000-5000 meters above sea level.

In addition, the Western Canal will have to overcome the natural watershed between the Yangtze and Yellow River basins - the Bayan-Khara-Ula ridge, a 750-kilometer mountain range up to 5,500 meters high. Here, engineers and builders will be faced with the need to create an entire system of reservoirs, dams with hydroelectric power plants, as well as a colossal length of tunnels and water conduits, with the help of which the Western Canal will go straight through the Kunlun strata and into the upper reaches of the Yellow River.

The inclusion of the Mekong and Salween rivers into its system, which are no longer part of the Yangtze basin, but flow from the Tibetan Plateau towards the countries, is also being considered as a promising second stage of the canal. South-East Asia. However, just taking into account the resistance of these states, the prospect of implementing the idea with the Mekong and Salween still looks illusory.

The Western Canal is still at the design stage, and specific dates for the start of work on its construction have not been determined. Most likely, before getting involved in this high-mountain hydraulic epic, the Chinese leadership will, over the coming years, analyze the success (or lack thereof) of the already built eastern and central sections of the complex. In the end, all theoretical forecasts about the long-term impact of the “turn of the rivers” on the ecology and climate of both the southern regions of the country, where water is taken from, and the northern provinces, which receive it in abundance, need to be tested in practice.

During the first 11 years of implementation of the “turn of the Chinese rivers” project, according to various estimates, $28-35 billion was spent on it. The scale of construction work is amazing: during the construction of the Eastern and Central Canals, about 11 billion cubic meters of soil were moved and 22 billion cubic meters of concrete were laid .

The most difficult, at least in engineering terms, stage of work is still ahead. In Tibet, in the western part of the complex, it is planned to spend another $25-35 billion by 2050. Ultimately, the country should have the largest engineering structure of our time, which has no analogues on the planet. All of China's previous experience in implementing its super-projects suggests that now only it is capable of carrying out work on such a colossal scale, with such a level of costs and the accompanying risk. The Chinese are capable of such projects, since the level of development of their technologies is one of the highest in the world. This is why Chinese equipment, its delivery from China, cargo, cargo transportation, and cargo are so relevant today.

But there is a problem that directly concerns our country - these are projects for the transfer of transboundary river flows by China

Russia shares two river basins with China - the Ob and Amur, and in both cases China is implementing flow transfer projects that affect Russian interests.

In the Ob basin, China has only the upper reaches of the Irtysh. This river is the largest tributary of the Ob, begins in China under the name Black Irtysh, then flows through the territory of Kazakhstan (where there are three large cities and a cascade of 3 hydroelectric power stations), and finally enters the territory of Russia. Considering that the millionth city of Omsk is located on the Irtysh, water resources This river is of great importance for our country.

Gateway on the water distribution canals irrigating the Beitun oasis

The annual flow of the Black Irtysh on the border of China and Kazakhstan is 5 km3, of which China, with the help of the Black Irtysh - Karamay canal, 22 meters wide and 300 kilometers long, is already taking 1.8 km3. There are serious concerns that in the future water will be withdrawn in even larger volumes. It should be noted that the Irtysh-Karaganda canal has been operating on the territory of Kazakhstan since Soviet times, designed for approximately the same volumes of transportation.

As a result, already now (as of 2012) in the Omsk region there are problems with both water supply and water transport. To solve them, since last year, the Krasnogorsk hydroelectric complex has been built below Omsk - a low-pressure dam without a hydroelectric power station, the main task which is to ensure a constant water level in the city area. In Kazakhstan, there are plans to build another reservoir with a hydroelectric power station on the Irtysh, in the Semipalatinsk region.

Krasnogorsk hydroelectric complex.

In the Amur basin, China accounts for almost its entire right-bank part, including the sources of the Amur (upper reaches of the Argun) and the largest tributary, the Sungari. And there, China has already implemented a project to transfer runoff - from Argun to the Dalai Lake area. The volume of flow transfer is up to 1 km3 with an average annual river flow of 3.5 km3. There are no plans to transfer the flow from the Sungari yet, but this river is very actively polluted, including by emergency volley discharges, which has more than once led to serious problems with water supply in the Khabarovsk region.

Construction of a canal from Argun.

At the same time, attempts to reach an agreement with China on these issues actually failed. Negotiations have been going on for many years, during which the parties exchange insignificant statements, and in the meantime the Chinese are quietly building more and more new channels - at best, the scale of the transfer is somewhat moderated. It seems, the only way if these problems are not solved, then at least mitigate them - the construction of new reservoirs in the Russian part of the basin of these rivers.

How can you suddenly take such beauty and turn it in the opposite direction? Photo from the official website www.rusgidro.ru

The scope of Russian engineering is wide. One of bright examples an idea that seems to an ordinary person The transfer of Siberian rivers from north to south in order to water the arid regions became practically impossible. However, this plan was not implemented due to its technological complexity. And after the collapse of the Soviet Union, he was generally buried, but, as it turned out, not for long. Today, talk about reviving the project is becoming louder.

It all started in 1868, when the Russian-Ukrainian public figure Yakov Demchenko, still a student at that time, developed a project to transfer part of the flow of the Ob and Irtysh into the Aral Sea basin. In 1871, an enterprising young man even published a book “On the flooding of the Aral-Caspian Lowland to improve the climate of adjacent countries,” but the Imperial Academy of Sciences did not take Demchenko’s work seriously.

The Aral Sea is “drying” along the Irtysh

Almost a century later, the idea of ​​diverting rivers surfaced. Kazakh academician Shafik Chokin returned to this issue. The scientist was concerned about the problem of the gradual drying of the Aral Sea. And his fears were not groundless - the main sources of water in the Aral Sea, the Syr Darya and Amu Darya rivers, spread over cotton and rice fields, which took most of the water for themselves. There was a real threat of disappearance of the Aral Sea. In this case, billions of tons of salt powder with a toxic composition could settle over a large area and negatively affect people's lives.

The Kazakh academician was heard; in 1968, the plenum of the CPSU Central Committee instructed the State Planning Committee, the USSR Academy of Sciences and other organizations to develop a plan for the redistribution of river flows. This project, in fact, fit perfectly into the Soviet policy of nature development. Slogans about the conquest of the latter were among the important ideologies of the Soviet government. Man, according to the ideas of that time, should have conquered, overthrown and transformed nature. Unfortunately, government actions in this direction were often accompanied by an absolute lack of understanding of environmental problems and were based solely on economic benefits.

Such large-scale projects were typical of the leading powers. And here's an example: at the same time, in 1968, US President Lyndon Johnson signed a law on the construction of the Central Arizona Canal. The main point of the idea was to irrigate arid regions, as in the case of the USSR.

In the States, its implementation began five years later and was completed. Construction was completed in 1994, and today the Central Arizona Canal is the largest and most expensive canal system in the United States. 18 years and $5 billion later, the canal is open in Phoenix. The Colorado River has swollen 330 miles and now flows through the Southern Desert, helping keep local farmers growing cotton, vegetables and citrus fruits in the surrounding areas afloat. This canal truly became the lifeblood of the region's inhabitants.

Academicians tore off the stop valve

In May 1970, that is, two years after the Central Committee gave instructions to develop a transfer plan, Resolution No. 612 “On the prospects for the development of land reclamation, regulation and redistribution of river flow in 1971–1985” was adopted. Preparatory work began - the specialists were faced with the task of transferring 25 cubic meters. km of water annually by 1985.

A year after Resolution No. 612 was adopted, the Irtysh–Karaganda irrigation canal with a length of 458 km came into operation. In part, he solved the problem of reclamation of a number of Kazakhstani lands.

And work began to boil - for almost 20 years, under the leadership of the Ministry of Water Resources, more than 160 Soviet organizations, including 48 design and survey and 112 research institutes (including 32 from the USSR Academy of Sciences) puzzled over how best to “turn” the rivers .

Together with them, 32 union ministries and 9 ministries of union republics worked on the project. The diligence of hundreds of specialists resulted in 50 volumes of textual materials, calculations and applied scientific research, as well as 10 albums of maps and drawings.

But the rivers were not destined to “turn around”. Society did not support such an initiative; devastating articles were published in the press, which spoke of serious environmental consequences.

For example, the magazine of fiction and social thought “New World” organized a major expedition to the Aral Sea region in 1988. It included writers, journalists, environmentalists, photographers and documentary filmmakers. After the trip, the participants drafted an official appeal to the government of the country, in which they analyzed the current situation in Central Asia. It also provided recommendations for solving environmental and social problems without such gross interference with nature.

These protest emotions were supported by expert opinions from the Academy of Sciences. Moreover, a group of academicians (the so-called Yanshin commission) signed a letter to the Central Committee “On the catastrophic consequences of transferring part of the flow of northern rivers” prepared by the outstanding academician, natural scientist and geologist Alexander Yanshin. In 1986, at a special meeting of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee, it was decided to stop work. It is believed that it was Yanshin’s commission that had a decisive influence on the USSR leadership’s abandonment of the project.

Rescue from warming

The unfortunate Siberian rivers did not remain quiet for long. In 2002, the then mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, remembered this idea and undertook to bring it to life. He got down to business so zealously that in July 2009, during a visit to Astana, he presented a book under the symbolic title “Water and Peace,” in which he openly spoke out in support of the project to transfer part of the Siberian rivers to Central Asia.

“This is not a turn of rivers, but the use of 5–7% of the enormous flow of the Siberian river in order to provide water to 4–5 regions of our state,” the capital’s mayor said then. In his opinion, Russia has always had an interest in this project, because “water has become a commodity and, very importantly, is a renewable resource.”

In the new millennium, the idea of ​​diverting rivers began to sparkle with new colors - at the beginning of the 21st century, the project began to be considered as a means of combating global warming. Today, experts say that the volume of fresh water supplied to the Arctic Ocean by Siberian rivers is growing. There is evidence that the Ob has become 7% more watery over the past 70 years.

Of course, we can be happy for the Ob. But one of the clear consequences of increasing fresh water in the north could be a worsening climate in Europe. As the British weekly New Scientist writes, an increase in the flow of fresh water into the Arctic Ocean will reduce its salinity and ultimately lead to a significant change in the regime of the warm Gulf Stream. Europe is facing serious cold snaps, and redirecting the flow of Siberian rivers somewhere could save it from this. In this regard, the Europeans, not wanting to freeze in winter, joined the Asian countries, in whose souls there is still a glimmer of hope that the Siberian rivers will turn in their direction.

Drought threat

A year after the presentation of Luzhkov’s book - in 2010 - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev made a statement that the land reclamation system created in Soviet times had degraded, part of it had been destroyed and everything needed to be restored anew. By the way, 2010 turned out to be a difficult and dry year, and the president was concerned about the drought problem. But, judging by the political realities of that time, perhaps Dmitry Anatolyevich was concerned not so much with the energy of the rivers as with Luzhkov himself.

At this time, the President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, suggested that the Russian leader return to the project of transferring rivers to the south. Thus, Luzhkov now has a serious like-minded person.

“In the future, Dmitry Anatolyevich, this problem may turn out to be very large, necessary to provide drinking water to the entire Central Asian region,” Nursultan Nazarbayev said at the forum of cross-border cooperation between the two countries in Ust-Kamenogorsk.

Medvedev then noted that Russia was ready to discuss options, even including “some previous ideas that at some point were shelved.”

And the “water” issue in the world has been brewing for a long time. For example, a report by US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, presented a couple of years ago, stated that a number of countries will experience a real shortage of drinking water in 10 years. According to the Americans, this will not lead to international conflicts, but “water in common pools will be increasingly used as a lever of influence.” “The likelihood of water being used as a weapon or means of achieving terrorist objectives will also increase,” the report says.

The UN predicted problems associated with water shortages even earlier. In December 2003, the 58th Session of the General Assembly declared 2005–2015 the International Decade of Action “Water for Life”.

In connection with such sentiments, the transfer of water may benefit the Russian authorities for two reasons. The first is, of course, their transfer to needy regions - of course, for a lot of money. Secondly, assistance to the Aral Sea will contribute to the entry of Vladimir Putin’s presidency into the annals of world history. Thus, according to Viktor Brovkin, a specialist in modeling climate processes at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, if Vladimir Putin wanted to respond to the US Mars project with something equally ambitious, the construction of a canal from Siberia to the Aral Sea would be perfect for this .

"Superchannel"

So what is the “Turn of Siberian Rivers” project today? Experts are unanimous - they have already seen all this somewhere. One can recall the construction of a water pipeline from the Great American Lakes to Mexico City or the Chinese project to save the Yellow River, which is drying up in the north, at the expense of the deep southern Yangtze River.

Yuri Luzhkov proposed building a water intake station near Khanty-Mansiysk and extending a 2,500 km canal from it from the confluence of the Ob and Irtysh to the south, to the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, which flow into the Aral.

It is planned to dig a “super canal” 200 m wide and 16 m deep. The Ob will lose about 27 cubic meters per year. km of water (approximately 6–7%) of its annual flow (its entire discharge is 316 cubic km). The amount of water entering the Aral Sea will exceed more than 50% of the water that previously entered it. In general, the bulk of water will be sent to the Chelyabinsk and Kurgan regions, as well as to Uzbekistan. There are plans to bring the canal to Turkmenistan and Afghanistan. In the future, water intake from the Ob should increase by 10 cubic meters. km - these millions of liters, as Yuri Luzhkov noted, will go to dehydrated Uzbekistan.

It seems that work has already begun, because back in 2004, Soyuzvodoproekt director Igor Zonn, in an interview with the British weekly New Scientist, said that his department was starting to revise previous plans for transferring the flow of Siberian rivers. For this, in particular, materials will have to be collected from more than 300 institutes.

In June 2013, the Ministry of Regional Development of Kazakhstan presented a general development plan for the country, developed jointly with one of the branches of the Kazakh Research and Design Institute of Construction and Architecture JSC (KazNIISA). The authors proposed turning the course of the Irtysh and directing the waters to the territory of Kazakhstan. Such a sip of water, according to them, will only be beneficial for the Kazakhs. The project document was to enter into legal force on January 1, 2014. Three decades were allotted for implementation.

Believe in nobility Russian authorities For some reason it doesn't work. The obvious benefits of a large-scale project are striking. The economies of Central Asian states, in particular Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, depend exclusively on cotton. They are now the largest consumers of water per capita in the world. Countries themselves have made their situation worse by implementing incompetent and environmentally destructive economies. The Cotton Monopoly is a prime example of this.

The Amu Darya and Syr Darya are strong, full-flowing rivers; together they carry more water than, for example, the royal Nile. But their water does not reach the Aral Sea, part of it goes into the sand, and part into irrigation systems with a length of about 50 thousand km. At the same time, local irrigation systems need repair and modernization; due to their deterioration, up to 60% of the water simply does not reach the fields.

"What we have? In Russia there are uncontrollable floods, and in Central Asia there is an ecological disaster in the Aral Sea; water reserves here will only decrease every year. Can Russia help? Maybe. But we have our own interests. This is not charity - we are talking about benefits for Russia,” said Yuri Luzhkov in 2003 in an interview with Arguments and Facts. But the question is: will Asia be able to afford such a turnaround?

Expert opinions vary. Some shout about dire consequences, others talk about opening horizons.

According to environmentalists, the diversion of Siberian rivers will most likely result in a disaster. The director of the Russian branch of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Igor Chestin, confirmed to Interfax several years ago that in the coming decades, Central Asia will indeed face an acute shortage of water, but this problem cannot be solved with the help of Siberian rivers. The program director of Greenpeace Russia, Ivan Blokov, shares the same opinion.

Those skeptics again...

Let's try to figure out what consequences may arise for Russia if the project is implemented. According to the head of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Nikolai Dobretsov, “the turn threatens the Ob River basin with an environmental disaster and socio-economic disaster.”

Ecologists put forward different hypotheses, but here are the main adverse consequences that the new “turn” will cause: agricultural and forest lands will be flooded by reservoirs; groundwater will rise throughout the entire canal and may flood nearby settlements and roads; Valuable fish species in the Ob River basin will die, which will complicate the lives of indigenous small peoples Siberian North; the permafrost regime will change unpredictably; the salinity of the waters of the Arctic Ocean will increase; the climate and ice cover in the Gulf of Ob and the Kara Sea will change; the species composition of flora and fauna in the areas through which the canal will pass will be disrupted.

They also doubt the economic benefits of building the canal. For example, according to Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Viktor Danilov-Danilyan, there is a very small probability that this project will become economically acceptable. According to his calculations, the construction of the main canal will require at least $300 billion. And in general, the world market will soon develop sectors for intensifying water use: water-saving and water-efficient technologies, as well as methods for ensuring high water quality in natural objects. And for countries such as Russia and Brazil, which have large reserves of fresh water, it is more profitable not to trade this natural “good.”

But the problem is that, unlike water, money has a different nature and a different power of influence. It is unlikely that the authorities will be afraid to flood Russian lands a little if final result promises mountains of gold. IN current realities this could play into the hands of Russia, which could heroically save Europe from the cold winters, while strengthening its influence in Asia and writing itself down in history. At what cost this will be done is a separate question, but looking back at the Olympics and Crimea, it seems that the Kremlin will not stand behind the price.

This story continues in all our cities today, and in the future will lead to war in Russia. 99.99%



The project to “turn back” the northern rivers is already more than a hundred years old. It originated under Alexander the Third, the author was some young engineer. The point is this. There is a huge excess of water in Siberia, from which there is no benefit other than harm - annual floods lick up a bunch of villages and small towns. And to the southwest lie exceptionally fertile lands only annexed by Wed. Asia. In an excellent climate, but a complete lack of water. All the new lands of the Russian Empire could become one continuous Fergana Valley, the fruits of which we as a whole country still eat in the fall and beyond. Look at the map, how small it is. And almost all of Wednesday can be so fertile. Asia.

It is not separated from Siberia by such a long hill, and the height difference is quite insignificant, about a hundred meters. An idea arose to create a large reservoir in the south of Siberia, in which to accumulate flood waters, and later transfer them through a system of canals to Asia. Collect from rivers, of course, also through a canal system. So, the whole project essentially boils down to the construction of these canals. No turning back the rivers!

In the late USSR, they finally came close to implementing this grandiose (geopolitical!) task. And then the “ecologists” started howling: “the brutal enemies of nature, the communists, want to turn the rivers back!” They were conducted from the West, this is now known, the details were outlined by S.G. Kara-Murza. This is understandable, the implementation of the idea led to enormous stability in the USSR, and solved a bunch of problems at once, not least food problems. Moreover, forever. Wed. Asia would forever be tied to Russia, simply becoming its organic part without the slightest international agitation. The local population would not have to migrate anywhere. On the contrary, the movement of the Slavs, and even the Balts, to Asia would begin. It would really begin to become Russified. And the prospect of an ethnic war in Russia, which now, alas, seems absolutely inevitable, would never have loomed. This is what the failure to implement this idea means. Neither more nor less.

Both Putin and the entire Liquidcom are well aware of this. But they prefer to create jobs for migrants in our cities, rather than in the construction of those canals for which Asians would kiss us on the diaphragm until the end of time. Water is what is called their age-old dream. Centuries old! And the elder brother Urus could fulfill it with a huge profit for himself. But the Urus didn’t give water, the janitor Bakhrom threw a snowball, now it will be Allah Akbar, an ax to the head, a whipping! 99.99%

All this could become a constructive program for Russian nationalists. Because now their entire “constructive” idea boils down to a proposal to shoot off the heads of the Churkestani street cleaners so that they don’t pile our snow in their stupid piles.

The other day, Moscow Mayor Luzhkov presented the book “Water and Peace,” in which the author tries to bring a grandiose project back to life Soviet era- transferring the flow of Siberian rivers to Central Asia.

For the first time, the idea of ​​​​transferring the flow of Siberian rivers to Central Asia was voiced by Demchenko in the book “On the flooding of the Aral-Caspian Lowland to improve the climate of adjacent countries” (1871). Further, the idea was picked up in 1948 by Obruchev.

In the 60s of the last century, a number of projects appeared, the implementation of which was undertaken by famous scientists from the country of the Soviets. The implementation of the first project was aimed at stabilizing the water level of the Caspian Sea (in the 60s the sea became shallow). To achieve this goal, it was planned to block the Northern Dvina at the mouth near Arkhangelsk and direct its waters to the Volga River, which would ultimately “feed” the Caspian Sea. In the 70s, for some reason, the level of the Caspian Sea suddenly began to rise, and the project was shelved.

This project was replaced by other equally large-scale ideas. In particular, scientists and politicians were concerned about the aridization of the climate of Central Asia and the drying up of the Aral Sea, which ultimately could put an end to the agriculture of Uzbekistan and a number of regions of Kazakhstan.

To combat the drying climate of Central Asia, the USSR arose ideas of transferring water from the “water-abundant” regions of Russia to the south, to the Aral Sea. The project, after its implementation, was supposed to transform Central Asia into a fertile agricultural region with a subtropical climate.

There were two options for implementing the task. The first option involved the transfer of 32 (±5) km3 of water from the Ob River near Khanty-Mansiysk up the Ob riverbed to the mouth of the Irtysh and further up the Tobol River to the Turgai Trough. Then the water would flow through the bed of the drying up Turgai River into the Syr Darya basin, and then, if desired, to Urgench on the Amu Darya. To implement this project, it was necessary to dig a canal 2555 kilometers long, 200-300 meters wide, 15-16 meters deep and with a throughput capacity of 1150 m3/sec of water. The main difficulty in implementing this project is the watershed between the West Siberian Plain and the Northern Aral Sea region, through which water will have to be pumped with powerful pumps. According to calculations carried out in Soviet times, the operation of these pumps will require the same amount of electricity per year as the entire city of Moscow. Yuri Luzhkov advocates for the implementation of this project in his book “Water and Peace”.

IN Soviet times There was also a “truncated” version of this project, according to which the transfer of water was planned directly from the mouth of the Tobol.

For what?

The implementation of any project, especially such a grandiose one, must be accompanied by weighty arguments. So, let's list the main advantages of implementing this project.

1. Cities and agriculture in need of water in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, as well as a number of regions of Russia (Omsk, Chelyabinsk, Kurgan) will receive long-awaited water, which will have a beneficial effect on their economic development.

According to Luzhkov, the project will make it possible in Russia alone to bring 1.5 million hectares of fertile land into agricultural production, create thousands of jobs, and launch hundreds of industrial enterprises and scientific institutions. The project will create the preconditions for solving numerous environmental problems of the Aral Sea.

2. The global fresh water market is rapidly developing, the price of water is constantly growing, which means that the development of a project for transferring water to Central Asia can bring significant profits to Russia.

3. In Soviet times, the implementers of the river flow transfer project counted only on a positive economic effect for the agricultural industry of Central Asia. Now this project is acquiring geopolitical overtones. If it is implemented, Russia will strengthen its economic and geopolitical positions in Central Asia.

The geopolitical importance of leveraging the potential shortage of water resources in this region has already been “heard” in the West. Thus, the World Bank for Reconstruction and Development has already allocated money to study the possibility of transferring water from the Indian Ganges River to Central Asia. If this project is implemented, Central Asia may find itself in the sphere of Western political influence.

4. According to the calculations of some scientists, global climate change will be accompanied by an increase in the flow of Siberian rivers (“water surplus” of Siberia will increase) and an intensification of harmful river floods. All this will happen along with aridization (drying) in Central Asia, which means that the project of transferring water to the south is an excellent opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.

5. Not only aridization occurring as a result of global climate change threatens Central Asia. Big problems may come from the south.
When Afghanistan gets back on its feet after debilitating wars, the country's industry and agriculture will need a lot of water. Afghanistan will take Amu Darya water. According to international agreements, up to half of the total river flow of a river flowing through the territory of a particular country is allowed for their own needs. The Japanese are already developing a project to divert 10 km3 of water per year from the Amu Darya for the needs of developing Afghanistan. It is not difficult to imagine what awaits Uzbekistan. This country's fresh water reserves could be halved. This means that the residents of Uzbekistan will face another environmental disaster. IN last decades Due to water shortages in Uzbekistan, 150 thousand people have already been forced to change their place of residence.
The situation is similar with China, which is now actively building a canal to divert water from the Irtysh for the needs of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. It is expected that China will annually transfer up to 6 km3 of water from the Irtysh for its needs. The main “victims” of the Chinese “thirst” will be Kazakhstan and Russia along the territory where the Irtysh flows.
Thus, a situation may arise in Central Asia that the implementation of a project to transfer the flow of Siberian rivers to the south will be simply necessary.

Or maybe it’s still not necessary?

Now we list the main arguments that can interfere with or delay the implementation of the project.

1. High cost of work. To this day, there are no accurate economic calculations of the cost of the project. The same applies to the solvency of water importers. Will the countries of Central Asia be ready to pay for water?

2. It is impossible to fully assess environmental damage.
A decrease in the flow of the Ob, due to the diversion of part of the flow to the south, will be accompanied by an increase in the salinity of the water at the mouth, which will cause a decrease in the area of ​​spawning grounds for valuable commercial fish.
During the implementation of the project, the floodplains of some rivers will be flooded.
The waters of Siberian rivers carry heat from south to north; if the northern river flow decreases, then, according to some calculations, the climatic boundaries will shift south by 50 kilometers (it will become colder), which will change the habitats of many living organisms.
Some scientists believe that the transfer of river flow from Siberian rivers can cause swamping and salinization of some areas of Central Asia.
The list of possible environmental threats can be continued as long as desired. We are not even aware of many threats.

3. A large amount of electricity will be required to transport this amount of water to the south. According to preliminary estimates, electric pumps will consume as much electricity per year as the city of Moscow.

4. The implementation of such a large-scale project will ultimately only delay the water crisis in Central Asia. Russian water will boost agricultural and industrial production in Central Asia, which will be accompanied by population growth. This means that soon there will be a shortage of water again and it will be necessary to again find the necessary water resources.

5. Central Asia has significant fresh water reserves that are used irrationally. Therefore, the main alternative to implementing a large-scale project to transfer river water flow is rational use water. The average resident of Tashkent spends 530 liters of water per day, which is twice as much as the average resident of many capitals of the world. The same goes for agriculture - huge amounts of water are wasted. Thus, in Uzbekistan, out of 55 km3 of water used for irrigation, only half reaches agricultural fields. In Central Asia, 90% of all irrigation canals have earthen walls. If all these canals are concreted, water losses for irrigation will be reduced by 5 times.

In general, the project is very controversial. It is too early to think about its implementation. At the first stage, to prevent a water crisis, the countries of Central Asia need to learn how to use their water resources more rationally.

However, Russia should not forget that in the future, water resources, like hydrocarbons, may become another toy in the hands of Western politicians. There are no guarantees that in 20-50 years, the next US “transporter”, “rolling out” across Central Asia, will “break through” water pipelines that are strategically important for their country.

A.V. Egoshin

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