Kazakhstan to face severe water shortages in less than 40 years

    Kazakhstan will face severe water shortages in less than 40 years, Professor at M. Kozybayev North Kazakhstan State University (NKSU), Natalia Beletskaya said.
    "A deterioration of water resources is expected. By 2050, demand for water will exceed its potential supply by three times," she reports.
    Beletskaya added that one of the reasons for the shortages is Kazakhstan’s drying climate.
    "The mountain glaciers in southern Kazakhstan and the further southern Pamirs are now melting intensively. Studies conducted by the Institute of Geography under the Ministry of Education and Science have shown over number of years that the Zailiyskiy Alatau glaciers will nearly disappear by 2050”.
    “Recently, an update from Kyrgyzstan was received stating 2 thousand glaciers out of 8 thousand have disappeared. This suggests that water resources and climatic conditions have an unfavorable forecast for the future," KazTAG wrote.