Cleanup underway on aftermath of mudslide near Almaty

    The dam at the Talgar River meant to channel the flow of water and mud into irrigation ditches destroyed by July 17 mudslide is being reconstructed, Tengrinews reports, citing Deputy Akim of the Almaty Oblast, Tynyshbai Dosymbekov.
    The flow rate of the Talgar River is now down to 20.6 cubic meters of water per second. During the mudslide, it peaked at 40 cubic meters per second. While the normal average flow rate of the Talgar River, a small mountain river fed by glaciers, is 10.6 cubic meters per second.
    300 thousand cubic meters of water carried stones downhill during the mudslide. All of the debris ended up in the mudflow storage reservoir located down river. The reservoir is large enough to hold 8 million cubic meters of mudwater.
    Speaking about the mudflow Dosymbekov said: "The main dam was not damaged, it withstood the water flow."
    According to the Emergency Services of Almaty Oblast the dam remains in working order. Some amount of water poured over the dam's ridge, but failed to break it.
    Initially, when commenting on the situation right after the mud flood happened, the Emergency Situations Department of Almaty Oblast had said the damn was washed away. When answering a direct question, Did the dam break?” they answered in the affirmative, and gave the exact time as 1 pm on July 17, and a rate of water flow of 40 cubic meters per second, Tengrinews.kz reports.