Bikers Festival "Preserve Balkash" took off at the lake

International Bikers Festival Preserve Balkash kicked off at the shore of Lake Balkhash on July 15, Tengrinews.kz reports. This is the fifth time the event is held this year. The festival is called to help develop tourism in Kazakhstan and attract attention to the ecological problems of the lake. The event will last for three days. During these days there will be a bikers’ parade, performances of stunts on bikes, concerts by Kazakh rock groups and a parade of brides. Participants of the festival are also going to plant trees at the Bikers’ Alley. Lake Balkhash is one of the largest lakes in Asia and 12th largest continental lake in the world. But the lake is shrinking because of the diversion of water from the rivers that feed it. The shallowing is especially evident in its western part. Another factor affecting the ecology of the Ili-Balkhash basin is emissions due to mining and metallurgical processes, mostly at the Balkhash Mining and Metallurgy Plant operated by Kazakhmys. Contamination of Balkhash originates not only locally, but is also brought by inflow of polluted water from China.