Kazakhstan Launches Flood Forecasting and Modeling System

Kazakhstan has launched Tasqyn, a new information system designed to forecast and model floods, Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Nurzhan Nurzhigitov announced during a February 18 meeting on preparations for spring floods. Currently, flood modeling is being conducted at 142 hydro posts along 128 river sections across the country. A team of 114 specialists monitors data from these hydro posts daily, entering it into the new system. The Tasqyn system is integrated with the Global Flood Awareness System (GloFAS), a worldwide flood warning network. It is expected to provide a final forecast for Kazakhstan’s 2025 spring flood season in early March. According to Nurzhigitov, in addition to domestic flood preparedness efforts, Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation maintains regular communication with neighboring countries to exchange hydrological data. The country has also begun controlled water releases from reservoirs to create additional capacity for melting snow runoff. Currently, Kazakhstan’s reservoirs can accommodate 13 billion cubic meters of floodwater, the minister stated. The new forecasting system is a crucial step toward preventing a repeat of the spring 2024 floods, which devastated Kazakhstan’s western and northern regions due to rapid snowmelt. The disaster destroyed thousands of homes and forced nearly 100,000 people to evacuate. As previously reported by The Times of Central Asia, Kazakhstan’s reservoirs and lakes accumulated over 75 billion cubic meters of water in 2024, including more than 12 billion cubic meters of floodwater. 

Kazakhstan to Cooperate with China and Russia in Combating Floods

Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation will sign a memorandum of cooperation with the Ministry of Water Resources of China to combat future spring floods together. The Kazakh ministry has also agreed with Russia to create a joint working group to coordinate actions during spring flood periods. Kazakhstan’s Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation, Nurzhan Nurzhigitov, announced this at a government meeting on September 24. The conference addressed eliminating the consequences of unprecedented spring floods in the country’s northern and western regions and preparing for future spring floods. Massive floods in the spring of 2024, caused by the rapid snow-melt, destroyed thousands of homes and forced almost 100,000 people to evacuate from flood zones. Much of the spring flood water comes to Kazakhstan via trans-boundary rivers flowing from Russia and China. "To ensure the collection and safe passage of flood water in the future, the ministry plans to build 42 new reservoirs with a total capacity of 2.6 billion cubic meters, as well as to reconstruct 37 reservoirs with a total capacity of 3.7 billion cubic meters and about 14,500 km of irrigation canals. This year, the construction of two reservoirs in the Turkestan region and the reconstruction of three reservoirs in the Aktobe, Turkestan, and West Kazakhstan regions began," Nurzhigitov stated, adding that the spring floods led not only to negative consequences, but also allowed reservoirs to collect more than twelve billion cubic meters of water used for economic needs. As of the beginning of September 2024, 8.4 billion cubic meters of that water were used for agricultural purposes. Nurzhigitov reported that the reservoirs of Kazakhstan's northern, central, eastern, and western regions are now 80% full and added that the spring floods have also helped improve the environmental situation by directing excess water to places where it had not flowed for a long time. For example, 80 million cubic meters of flood waters were directed to the Kamysh-Samar lakes of the West Kazakhstan region. For the first time in decades, water arrived in the lakes of the Kyzylorda region through the Sarysu River. Since the beginning of the year, twelve billion cubic meters of water have been sent to Lake Balkhash, and 7.4 billion cubic meters to the Caspian Sea. Nurzhigitov also stated that, together with the Ministry of Digital Development, Innovation, and Aerospace Industry, work is underway to create an information system for forecasting and modeling floods, which will be launched before the end of the year. "This information system will allow for flood forecasting to make strategic decisions. It will show potential flood risk zones on the map," Nurzhigitov explained. At the same meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Kanat Bozumbayev reported that the 2024 spring floods had affected more than 120,000 people across 12 regions. Bozumbayev emphasized that new housing for families affected by the flood was constructed in an unprecedentedly short space of time. In under four months, 2,576 new houses were built, and 5,767 houses and apartments were purchased on the secondary market. In addition,...