Water Resource Management Employees Day in Kazakhstan Date in the current year: July 9, 2024

The main tasks of water resource management employees are planning, developing, distributing and managing the optimum use of the country’s water resources, protecting them from depletion and pollution, and ensuring the proper running of water facilities.

Kazakhstan is the world’s largest landlocked country (although it adjoins the Caspian Sea and the Aral Sea, these “seas” are actually very large lakes). Because of its geographic location and extreme continental climate, Kazakhstan experiences a shortage of water resources.

The country has seven major rivers whose length exceeds 1,000 kilometers. They are the Irtysh River, the Ishim River, the Ural River, the Syr Darya, the Tobol River, the Ili River, and the Chu River. The Irtysh is Kazakhstan’s deepest river and the main source of the country’s water resources. In total, there are more than 85,000 rivers in the country. However, the length of most of them doesn’t exceed 100 kilometers.

In addition to rivers, Kazakhstan has over 48,000 lakes, most of which have a surface area of less than a square kilometer. These lakes are distributed unevenly across the country’s territory. Almost half of all the lakes are located in northern Kazakhstan, about 35% of the lakes are located in the center and south, and less then 20% of lakes are located in other regions. The largest lake entirely located within Kazakhstan is Lake Balkhash.

The total surface area of Kazakhstan’s thirteen reservoirs is almost 9,000 square kilometers, and the total amount of water in them is more than 87 cubic kilometers. The country’s largest reservoirs are the Bukhtarma Reservoir (5500 km²/50 km³) and the Kapchagay reservoir (1847 km²/28 km³). In the arid regions of Kazakhstan, ground waters are actively used as a water source.

In recent years, the rational use of water resources has become a major challenge for the government and people of Kazakhstan. The shortage of water resources is caused by a number of factors, both external (for example, overuse of shared water resources by neighboring states) and internal (outdated water purification and supply facilities). And the country’s water management employees are expected to do their work well regardless of the challenges they may face.

The Kazakh authorities have established Water Management Employees Day to acknowledge their significant contribution to providing the country’s population and industrial sector with water, maintaining reliable operation of water facilities, and helping preserve the natural resources of Kazakhstan.

On the occasion of their professional holiday, water management employees are congratulated by the country’s leaders and senior officials, as well as their superiors, colleagues, families and friends. The most distinguished of them are awarded with memorable gifts, cash bonuses, letters of appreciation, etc.