Almaty has enough mountain water for 50 more years

Water deficiency is not a threat to Almaty in the coming decades, Tengrinews.kz reports citing Geography Doctor, professor of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University Yevgeniy Vilessov. The professor refuted the statement of chairman of Tabigat ecological union Oleg Novikov that in the coming years Almaty can face a deficit of water because of the deteriorating ecological situation. According to Vilessov, the situation with glaciers does not pose any threat to Almaty. Melting is going well, in line with the climate change. “The glaciers are melting because of the global warming and they will completely melt awayafter 50 years. But there will be no problems with water, as the river flow will shrink only by 10 percent at most,” he said. Besides, the professor noted that the information given by Novikov that “we take 80 percent of water from open sources” is not correct. “Only 20 percent of water in Almaty comes from open sources; this is including the Larger and Lesser Almaty Rivers. The remaining 75-80 percent are taken from underground water flows,” Vilessov said. By Vladimir Prokopenko