Naryn River Pollution Poses Ecological Disaster

Kyrgyzstan's main river Naryn, a key water source for the country, is more polluted more than ever, environmentalists say. If nothing is done in the near future, pollution the Naryn may become the country's worst ecological disaster

The Naryn is polluted not only by industrial enterprises and uranium deposits, but also by waste from the rapidly growing population living near its banks. The river starts in the mountains of Issyk-Kul Oblast and ends in the Togtogul water reservoir.

Kyrgyz environmentalists are particularly concerned of the impact of the Kumtor gold mine, which has a long list of complaints. The company's activities have been linked to glacier melting, which contributes to Naryn pollution. The problem is that the polluted materials go from the Naryn to the Syrdarya River, which flows all the way down the Ferghana Valley.

The first serious signs of problems in the Naryn River started showing up in 2008, when scientist and independent expert Isabek Torgoyev reported that one of the glaciers, the Davydov Glacier, was getting polluted, which led to its faster melting and that in its turn led to pollution of Naryn River.

"At first we didn't predict the disaster, but in 2012 it was obvious that a massive glacier was melting, and that this huge mass is moving down to the river," he says.

According to Torgoyev, this mass is still moving, and it can pose danger to various construction projects nearby, sub-stations, and other infrastructure. "This mass is also blocking the Chon-Sarytor River, and while this is so far not an enormous problem, it can potentially grow into one," he says.

Graduate researcher Nurlam Abdykalyev, who is working on a dissertation on Kyrgyz rivers' pollution problems, says overall there are three main sources of the problem.

"The first group are the chemicals from the fields where various agricultural products were grown with the use of pesticides. As a result in the Syrdarya River we can see a high concentration of chrome, cadmic and selenium. These elements have been confirmed as one of the reasons why so many people in the Ferghana Valley get cancer," he says.

The second group, according to him, includes uranium deposits and mines left from Soviet industrial times. The largest of them is located in Maili-Suu: about 4 million tons of uranium products that's open to public and doesn't have any warning or protective materials to cover them from the residents.

Source: 24

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• River Studies
• Environment
• Pollution