In the wake of news about the problems of Lake Baikal, we remembered that the largest fresh water reservoir of the planet is not the only the one which is threatened by an environmental disaster and destruction. Such problems are mainly the result of human actions, direct (development banks, construction of hydraulic structures), or indirect ones (impact on climate change). In February, our digest contains the main reservoirs of the planet, which has already an experience of negative impact of Homo Sapiens.
Eurasia. Perhaps, the most serious situation on our continent takes place at the already mentioned Lake Baikal. Its level has dropped by 40 cm for the first time in 60 years. Over the past week the water level has dropped by 1 cm and now it's 456.03 meters of Pacific height system. There are only three centimeters to get to the state, which is considered critical. If the level gets below the critical value, water shortages will appear in the settlements and water constructions along the shores of the lake. Total scale of environmental effects could not yet be estimated: in spring, when the hydrological regime hopefully bounces back, it will be understood. Environmentalists are greatly concerned about the state of the coastline - for example, the one of the Selenga River delta, which flows into the lake.
Another suffering pond of Eurasia is the Aral Sea, once the fourth largest lakes in the world. Its story is a lesson for whole world. In the 1960s, Soviet irrigators decided to turn the arid steppes of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan in flowering fields. For this purpose hundreds of kilometers of irrigation channels were built, they took water from the Amudarya and Syrdarya rivers which fed the Aral Sea. As a result, due to lack of supply lake shallowed rapidly. In 2000, it was divided into two parts: the North Aral Sea in Kazakhstan and the South Aral Sea in Uzbekistan. Five years later, the South Aral Sea was divided into an eastern and western parts. And last fall the eastern part completely dried up - the first time in 600 years. In 2005, the World Bank has allocated funds for the restoration project of the Northern Aral Sea. Since the level of water in this part of the lake has increased, its salinity decreased. However, periodic droughts will lead to catastrophic consequences for many years.
North America. The Colorado River, which starts is in the Rockies, and descends through California and Arizona to the Gulf of Mexico is also a monument to thoughtless economic of XX century. It even doesn't reach its delta, and now the confluence of the Caribbean Sea resembles a Martian landscape. The reason is also irrigation and excessive water use by American cities, standing on the bank of the river.
Past mistakes are now corrected with triple diligence here. US authorities are implementing the project of artificial recharge of the river bed using a large network of canals. And Mexican farmers downstream restore the shore of the Colorado River Delta, severely destroyed by erosion. They plant trees and shrubs to keep desert encroachment. And some results are already seen: water has appeared even in the long-parched wells.
Africa. Water problems have been urgent for a long time on the continent. But recent years is has been a real war for water. The warring parties are Ethiopia, which is building a dam on the Blue Nile, and Egypt, which is the downstream and which receives water only from the Nile. Sudan and eight countries, located on the Nile, are on the side of Egypt. Authorities of the African countries have allowed engineers to move the direction of the Blue Nile in the 500 meters to the implement the ambitious project "The Great Ethiopian Renaissance" – that is how dam was called. The length of the dam is 1.7 kilometers, and its construction will end in 2017.
The population of Ethiopia exults: it is the largest project in the past few decades, which will provide the country with electricity and jobs. But on the contrary Egyptians panicked. Environmental impact of the project is difficult to predict, but if Nile shallows, Egypt has no chance to survive. That is why the country's exclusive right to use three quarters of the Nile water was fixed in the international agreement in 1959. And the construction of the dam, according to the Egyptian authorities, is a direct violation of the treaty.
Photo: Shutterstock, AirPano, NASA, Corbis, National Geographic.