Drought. The Shrinking of Lake Spartak. Threat to Biodiversity.
The summer of 2021 turned out to be dry for all of Kyrgyzstan. However, the consequences of the low water levels are most acutely felt in the Chui region. Currently, the entire territory of the Chui Valley can be viewed in one way or another as a zone of ecological disaster and ecocide.
According to specialists, the "Spartak" reservoir used to host the largest number of fish species in the Chui region and in Kyrgyzstan as a whole during "good times." A total of 25 species were found here, including pike, crucian carp, chebak, marinka, perch, snakehead, silver carp, carp, osman, trout, eleotrid, and catfish. The largest among them is the catfish. The weight of one caught in the reservoir reached 90 kg. The smallest is the tiny eleotrid, with adult individuals barely reaching 5 centimeters. Now, to varying degrees, the death of fish has affected almost the entire species composition.
The same situation is observed at the third Ala-Archa reservoir, where the water has also been drained to zero level, resulting in a huge amount of dead fish lying and decomposing. Videos of the incident have been published on social media. Local fishermen witnessed thousands of fish floating to the surface. "A few days ago, I came early in the morning and saw a terrible sight," one of them recounted. "The entire surface of the lake was covered with floating dead fish." Instead of a large reservoir, there remains a small river where hundreds of kilograms of dead fish float.
The death of fish in the water bodies of the Chui Valley is not only due to the draining of water. Fish in the canals are dying from extreme heat, lack of wind, and insufficient oxygen in the water. This is also related to the proliferation of lower microflora—non-edible vegetation for fish that absorbs the oxygen belonging to them. The water in the canals warms up to over 26 degrees Celsius, while the norm is 21 degrees, leading to active algal blooms. During the day, they produce oxygen through photosynthesis, and at night, they consume it, causing a daily oxygen deficit.
The situation is complicated not only by the lack of meltwater from glaciers but also by significant losses that have become particularly noticeable in the context of the existing shortage. The use of water for irrigation negatively affects the fauna of rivers: small rivers in the agricultural zone of the Chui Valley are almost completely devoid of water during the summer. As a result of the regulation of large canal flows and mass discharges of water from reservoirs, the floodplains are degrading, swamps are drying up, and tugai thickets are disappearing, leading to the total destruction and death of all biodiversity in rivers and water bodies. Fish are dying by the ton, amphibians are disappearing, and migratory birds are leaving their nesting sites.
This is despite the fact that reservoirs and floodplain areas traditionally serve as places for rest and feeding for many waterfowl during their migration and wintering periods. No specialist can say how colossal the damage to nature can be. Monitoring the population numbers of waterfowl in the reservoirs is practically non-existent.
According to data, only 15-20% of river runoff in Kyrgyzstan is used for domestic water consumption, while the remaining 80-85% flows into the territories of Central Asian countries. Open sources also indicate that Kyrgyzstan has experienced the highest temperature increase of 1.6 °C compared to Central Asian countries. The forecast for temperature rise by 2100 is 4.4 °C. This will accelerate the melting and evaporation of mountain glaciers due to the cumulative effects of the climate system: temperature, atmospheric pressure, humidity, evaporation, greenhouse effect, wind patterns, pollution, and evapotranspiration.
According to specialists, low water levels are a seasonal and cyclical phenomenon. If the government does not draw conclusions from what is happening today, it will inevitably face the problem again in the future, the social consequences of which are difficult to overestimate. Soil drought, dust storms, soil erosion and degradation, reduced yields, loss of biodiversity. Then, fierce competition for resources, conflicts, migration, and ecological refugees should be expected...
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