The latest Astana water crisis put the population in flurry. Government had to address that issue, but…there are people in this country who are saying – “Enough! Water is needed in other regions of the country, while the capital city’s growth should be arrested…”

Zulfiya Suleimenova, Minister of Ecology shared plans on construction of a water conduit for Astana.  According to the Minister, the project envisages transportation of water from the Kanysh Satpayev Channel into River Yesil with the prior cleaning and expansion of the river bed, as well as construction of water management facility and a water connection line to the Astana Su Arnasy (Astana City Water Management Facility) pumping station. The project is supposed to be fulfilled in 2023-2025. The project will give Astana Water Storage Facility some 62.3 million cubic meters of water in the dry times.

Mr. Rasul Sysmambetov, in his Facebook account criticized the project, as follows:

“I am against the planned spending of tens of billons for an additional water conduit that will give more water to Astana, for the following reasons.

When they were beginning to build Astana, the initial thought was to have a small and cozy urban community for 100-200 thousand individuals, for the governmental officials to enjoy the ascetic lifestyle and spend the time thinking about what is to the benefit of the homeland. Eventually, Astana dragged into its orbit some 1 million.

Now Astana is in the phase of uncontrolled expansion of the city population. That is done to help land developers make more money. Now, they are thinking about bringing more water from Satpayev Channel. All for the sake of land developers, who will receive water for their ugly concrete boxes, the quality of which deteriorates from year to year.

I say, that in Kazakhstan we might find a good dozen of places, where water is urgently necessary – for irrigation, for industry and other purposes. Water must be injected there, not into lobbyist desires of land developers

Land developers are conceiving dreams about a big metropolitan area covering Karaganda and Lake Burabay, some sort of Mexico-City, they will stuff with half of the population of the country and thus gain more profits.

It appears to me,

now is the high time to stop and reconsider the expansion of our major cities, including Astana, Almaty, Shymkent, Karaganda, Atyrau and others

The master plan must be reviewed in the House or, at least, in the Senate. Astana is no longer a one-million city. Where to grow? Soon, our south provinces will lose all irrigation water, that is where we should direct those conduits. 

Our Ecology Minister is a smart person, I am sure, she will overcome that tendency of uncontrolled urban expansion in favor of sustained development”.