CC BY
9EARTH SCIENCES
THE ILI RIVER IS IN DANGER
Kazhet A.
Journalist, Master of Science, "Zhetisu" newspaper of the Almaty Region, the
Republic of Kazakhstan
Abstract
Today, the agenda requires consideration of the issue of transboundary rivers between China and Kazakhstan. The amount of water of the Ili River flowing into Kazakhstan from Chinese territory has decreased due to nonimplementation of agreements between two countries on cooperation in use and protection of the water resources of the transboundary rivers, which causes serious environmental disaster for Lake Balkhash. The ways to solve this problem and the requirements for implementing international agreements will be discussed below.
Keywords: Transboundary rivers, Ili River, Lake Balkhash, environmental threat, international agreement, common water use, Water Code, Environmental Code.
Today, the state of transboundary rivers between countries of Central Asia and its neighboring states is really complicated. It affected ecological situation in the region and known worldwide as "Aral tragedy". Overall, 24 rivers flow into Kazakhstan from China [1]. 80% of water streaming into Lake Balkhash comes from China's rivers. Unfortunately, Balkhash is gradually becoming a serious environmental disaster zone due to annual decrease in water flowing into it. This may complicate the life of both the inhabitants of this region and the entire humanity.
The danger arises from negligence of Kazakhstani and Chinese people inhabiting the shore of the lake to environmental situation and marvels of nature that belongs to all mankind. Of course, the Chinese side should be more responsible for this as 80% of water resources flows to the mentioned river from China. Total length of the Ili River on the Chinese side is 125 kilometers, 26 rivers and streams flow into the river from the south, 12 rivers and streams from the north. If we consider the study results regarding the volume of water of Tekes, Kunes, and Shakpy rivers that flowed into the Ili river from the Chinese side of the year 2004 in comparison with the volume of 1959, we can notice terrifying danger. For instance, in 1959 total inflow of the Tekes river was 17 billion 729 million, water volume of the Kunes river-1 billion 648 million, inflow of the Shakpa river-839 million 370 thousand cubic metres, in 2004 the volume sharply decreased, the Tekes river-12 billion 773 million, the Kunes river-964 million, the Shakpy river-588 million cubic metres. Total inflow of water from 26 rivers and streams mentioned above in 1959 was 636912 cubic metres, and in 2004 report it decreased to 433374 cubic metres. 16 years have passed since then. However, even if it is not possible to obtain reliable information about the water resources of rivers and streams, it is obvious that the results do not look promising.
This situation arises because the Chinese side uses large amount of water for agriculture. It deforests, builds settlements, cities and power plants along the shores of rivers and streams and digs lots of internal ring ducts.
There are no extensive violations in this regard from the Kazakhstani side such as deforestation, constructing plants or barriers in the Ili riverbed. Therefore, in comparison to the Chinese side, decrease of water in
rivers and streams that flow into the Ili River is less here. However, in recent years, the number of actions that destroy the riverbed has increased due to construction of the Western China-Western Europe Highway and intensive construction works in the region. It reduces the riches of the river water, kills plants, and also disrupts the life of aquatic animals. Moreover, the water along the riverbed goes underground without flowing into Lake Balkhash. Subparagraph 5 of paragraph 1 of Article 125 of the Water Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan adopted in 2003 states: "No fossils should be extracted from riverbeds" [3].The Environmental Code adopted in 2007 displayed specific projects to protect the environmental situation of water reservoirs. Unfortunately, these designations are not fully implemented.
If we consider the whole nature as an integrated individual, then we can see that the abuse of ecological situation in one region leads to destruction of the whole nature. Therefore, the wealth of the nature should not be considered from the economic point of view of every state, but in the eye of environmental protection of the mankind. Therefore, Kazakhstan and China should reach the required agreement and work together in order to save the Ili riverbed.
The Republic of Kazakhstan has formalized all relevant international conventions. On June 12-15, 2011, the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev and the Chairman of the People's Republic of China Hu Jintao signed the agreement on effective use and protection of transboundary water resources. Nevertheless, the obtained results have fallen far short of expectations. Hence, the amount of river water flowing from China to Kazakhstan does not match the agreed volume. It means that our neighbors are not fully fulfilling their promise and the conditions of the international agreement. According to calculations for the year 2000, total water source of the Ili region was 17 billion 244 million cubic meters. 957 million cubic meters of water form the river waters that come from Kazakhstani part[2]. According to estimates of the same year, 11 billion 226 million cubic meters of water flew from the Ili River to Kazakhstan from the Chinese side. Unfortunately, in recent years China has taken various restrictive measures to the agreed water resources of the Ili River.
Several years ago, according to the order of the State Council of PRC, the Committee on State Development- Reform of PRC, Ministry of Water Management, Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development announced "The 13thfive-year plan" for reforming and development of the water sector. It was planned to increase the number of the reservoirs in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous region from 18 to 25.This plan also specified that "The Chinese government in the following years will make financing from the state budget for cultivation of fish and aquatic invertebrates inhabiting in small and large reservoirs located in the border zone". This step will lead to pollution and reduction of transboundary rivers and groundwater flowing between Kazakhstan and China.
Thus, the violations in the Ili riverbed primarily cause decrease in the amount of the water flowing into Lake Balkhash. This may lead to desiccation of Lake Balkhash, which is known as a regulator of the overall environmental situation in Central Asia. If the Aral
tragedy will be repeated on Lake Balkhash, not only Zhetysu region in Kazakhstan will suffer from it, but it will also pose a threat to the territory up to the Takla-makan desert in China. Therefore, in accordance with the international agreement, both countries should determine responsibility for common use of the Ili River and protection of its environmental situation and strive for common well-being of the mankind. And the Ka-zakhstani side should also aware of all its responsibilities under the agreement, legislate its obligations and prevent any illegal actions in this regard. Otherwise, humanity will face severe disasters in the future.
REFERENCES:
1. http://adilet.zan.kz/kaz/docs/U950002331_
2. "On water affairs of Kunes district", Akhatbek Ualkhanuly, "Historical materials of Kunes", 8th book, 2004.
3. http://adilet.zan.kz/kaz/docs/K030000481_
4. http://adilet.zan.kz/kaz/docs/K070000212_
TO A NEW INTERPRETATION OF ECOLOGICAL TOURISM CONTENT
Karpenko T.
Assistant, Krivoy Rog State Pedagogical University, Krivoy Rog, Ukraine Post-graduate student, Uman National University of Horticulture,
Uman, Ukraine Lakomova O.
Candidate of geografical science, Krivoy Rog State Pedagogical University,
Krivoy Rog, Ukraine
Abstract
Traditionally, ecological tourism is important, as it introduces uncontaminated, reserved territories. The statistic rethinks the traditional approach to the meaning of the environmentally friendly tourism, especially in the regions with the developed industry. In such regions, before ecologic tourism, it was necessary to bring the price up to the enterprises, which they knew about the transformation from the people's side.
Keywords: ecological tourism, anthropogenic landscapes, industrial regions,industrial tourism, traditional eco-tours, new ecological tourism objects.
Of course, ecological tourism is understood mainly as visiting the most environmentally balanced, unpolluted, protected areas [1,2]. This position was facilitated by the people's need to escape from cities full of technology and industrial sites. The leading reason for participating in traditional eco-tours is the desire to enjoy the pristine nature. According to the WTO, ecological tourism accounts for 7-10% of the annual revenue of the whole tourism industry. The social significance of this type of tourism consist in primarily in the educational and recreational meaning [9]. However, environmental processes always have, figuratively speaking, the "downside". In industrial and urban areas, anthropogenic landscapes and man-made processes dominate everywhere. Therefore, the challenge was to rethink the traditional approach to defining the content of ecological tourism, especially in industrialized regions.
The present step of development of the landscape sphere, especially during the twentieth century, is characterized by truly planetary human intervention to the state of nature. By direct or chain paths, humanity has achieved that there are no natural landscapes on Earth at all. All modern landscapes are transformed by man. In the mining and urban areas, there are generally newer man-made landscapes, humanity has created a
lot of environmental problems [5]. Hence the important methodological question: if the consequences of anthropogenic transformative activity of nature is an element of the ecological framework of the territory, is a product of human life, is a component of modern human environment, why by defining the content of the ecological tourism we pay attention only to a part (also called "positive") human environment and at the same time forget about the other side of human development (which is called "negative")? The various consequences of human activity are also an environmental component of society. We need to review the content of traditional ecological tourism.
If one considers rigorously the content of all environmental knowledge without favoring one of its parts, then the sence of the traditional interpretation of the ecological tourism becomes very incomplete and onesided. The restriction of the content of ecological tourism, as tourism only to protected areas, is more reminiscent of the result of subjective intervention in the theory of tourism science. However, science always requires objectivity [3]. Therefore, we believe that the content of eco-tourism should also include traveling to the regions and sites that are most heavily, or to some extent, suffered by high quality human transformation.
