Siberia's tug of war over Lake Baikal's water - Villagers struggle as world's largest freshwater lake drops to its lowest level in 60 years (see video)
Ranzhurovo, Russia - Nikolay Penoyev stands in
the middle of an empty field blanketed in snow. Next to him on the barren
ground rests a speedboat. "This boat is meant to be on water,"
Penoyev says, pointing to the grounded vessel. "We're standing in the
middle of a river. It used to be 40 metres wide." Penoyev is chief of
Ranzhurovo, a Siberian village stricken by a water crisis. That Ranzhurovo is
on the shores of Lake Baikal, home to a quarter of the world's fresh surface
water, makes the situation all the more perplexing.
See video:
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2015/04/siberia-tug-war-lake-baikal-water-150406080745184.html
The water level of Lake Baikal - the world's deepest and oldest freshwater lake and a UNESCO world heritage site - has reached its lowest point in 60 years, plummeting below the minimum level designated by the government as critical. Last year, hydroelectric dams were allowed to increase their release of water, but as precipitation fell well short of the predicted amount, water levels in the lake dropped more than 40cm.
The water level of Lake Baikal - the world's deepest and oldest freshwater lake and a UNESCO world heritage site - has reached its lowest point in 60 years, plummeting below the minimum level designated by the government as critical. Last year, hydroelectric dams were allowed to increase their release of water, but as precipitation fell well short of the predicted amount, water levels in the lake dropped more than 40cm.
"Everyone was expecting high water levels in Baikal and
were scared of the floods. So in the spring more water was removed from the
Irkutsk hydro plant than in the previous year," says Sergey Shapaev - an
ecologist from Ulan Ude, about 6,000km east of Moscow - who monitors Lake
Baikal's water levels.
In January, the government declared a state of emergency in
the region surrounding the lake. Controversially, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry
Medvedev executed
an order in February allowing the temporary reduction of Baikal's
water level by an additional 20cm below its previous level. Since then,
the lake's level has dropped 10cm below the critical limit of 456m set by the
government to prevent damage to the ecosystem, according to Russia's
Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.
The ability to draw water from the lake even after it fell
below the critical level, allows energy company Irkutskenergo's hydroelectric
plant, situated on the Angara river - the only river to flow out of Baikal,
rather than into it - to continue generating power. "For the hydroelectric
plant to continue functioning, the government has allowed them to lower the
level of Baikal," Shapaev says.
Hard life for villagers:
The demands of the hydroelectric plant leaves villagers around
Baikal on the losing side of a tug of war for the lake's water. "There are
about 44 villages on the shores of Baikal Lake. People living there take water
from wells that are connected with the Baikal water level. When the Baikal
water level goes down there is no water in the wells," says Shapaev.
This is a serious problem for villages such as Ranzhurovo,
with only 11 percent of the communities around Baikal having a permanent water
supply. "We've had to dig the wells deeper to reach the water, and in other
places we've had to use an electric pump to draw the water," Penoyev says.
"Before we deepened the wells, we had special cars delivering water to the
village." This is made more difficult by the lack of paved roads in
Ranzhurovo.
The occasional car passing along the dirt roads, and the
frequent barking of stray dogs, is all that break the pristine silence.
Standing outside one of the colourful wooden houses, traditional to Russia, is
a group of women talking. Vera, the tallest of them, attempts to draw water
from a well for the livestock she raises, displaying the empty bucket that
results. "I've lived in this village since childhood, and now that
Baikal's water level has gone down, it's the first time I've seen there's no
water in the well. I don't know how I can give the cows water," she says. "I
have an electric pump at home, but it's hard to use, only draws a small amount
of water, and takes a long time to fill a bucket. And sometimes we don't have
electricity so we can't use it at all."
Another stressor on the water level is the removal, over the
last 20 years, of large rocks from the bed of the Angara river, mostly
illegally, causing its water level to fall a metre near the plant, says
Shapaev. The plant was designed to create power with the river at a higher
level than it currently is after the removal of the rocks, but Shapaev
says the government and plant owners failed to make an adjustment. Russia's
Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment says Irkutskenergo was working
within approved regulations.
"After the Irkutsk hydro plant was built, the water
level of Baikal became one metre higher. The lake became a reservoir and the
dam was helping to control water levels," the government said in a
statement sent to Al Jazeera. "This was approved by the Rosvodresurs
[Russian water resources] special group, which was created to control the
Baikal water level. In 2014, Irkutskenergo followed all the rules of this group
very strictly."
However, impoverished villagers say the lower levels of the
lake have increased the economic strain on their lives. Many families in
villages around the lake make their livelihoods through fishing. But a
combination of the lowered water levels on Baikal and pollution from factories
surrounding its banks, has left fish in short supply. With their horses
strapped to wooden ice drills, a group of fishermen from Ranzhurovo walked the
animals in circles to cut through thick ice that covers Lake Baikal in the
winter months, and cast nets into the frigid water. A typical fishing trip
takes more than eight hours on the lake, with temperatures often dropping below
-30 degrees Celsius.
Disappearing fish:
For the fishermen, the arduous effort might not be worth it for much
longer. A typical catch for fishermen this winter amounts to a few kilos, enough
to net each angler a mere 20 roubles (30 cents) a day. The amount of fish
decreases year by year, they say. "Low water, little fish, less
money," one fisherman says. Another fisherman says, "If there's no
fish we'll go on the 'Big Road'," - a Russian euphemism for criminal
activity. It's unlikely the fish will return in numbers anytime soon, one
researcher says
. "We expect that fishermen will get less fish from
Baikal," says Rihanova Petrovna, an ecologist from the Baikal
Environmental Wave organisation in Irkutsk, a little more than 5,000km east of
Moscow. "It will get worse, the water level will be going down even
more." Petrovna told Al Jazeera another problem is that villages on the
lake's banks do not have proper sewage systems and dirty water flows back
into Baikal, disrupting the ecosystem and killing fish.
Fresh fears: Medvedev signed an order in
early March banning production of paper and pulp in the central zone
of the Baikal nature reserve, which should alleviate some pollution worries. But
Russia says the biggest threat to Baikal isn't under its control - because that
comes from its neighbour to the south.
Mongolia plans to build dams for a series of 25 new
hydroelectric plants along the Selenga river, the source of half the water that
flows into Baikal. The new dams would cut the flow of water, further reducing
water levels in the lake.
Russia's Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment said
the building of hydroelectric plants on the Selenga river would "lead to a
catastrophic situation for the Baikal ecosystem". "The
situation may get worse and probably people living on the banks of Baikal won't
have water at all," says Petrovna. "This is a paradox - the biggest
lake in the world and the people living there have no water."
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