China Sending More Water into Kazakhstan via Transborder Rivers, Helping to Overcome Water Shortages There and Winning Friends in the Process

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 31 – After more than a decade of controversy about China’s use of water from transborder rivers, Beijing is now supplying vastly more water to that Central Asian country on the basis of an agreement reached last spring.

            Since the beginning of 2025, Beijing has allowed 5.6 billion cubic meters of water to flow via the Ili into Kazakhstan and 4.6 billion cubic meters of water to come into that country via the Ertis. As a result, reservoirs are filling back up, and the water level of Lake Balkhash has risen 32 centimeters since last year (rivers.help/n/5230).

            Kazakhs are jubilant, especially after all the complaints about Chinese behavior regarding water they have lodged over more than a decade and their fears Lake Balkhash was about to share the fate of the Aral Sea (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/12/water-dispute-between-kazakhstan-and.html and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2021/08/china-taking-ever-more-water-from-ili.html).

            This influx of water from China will have a positive impact on relations between the two countries, especially since Moscow is as yet unwilling to launch a program of Siberian river diversion on which Kazakhs and other Central Asians have long counted on (https://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/07/only-revival-of-siberian-river.html and    windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2025/03/astanas-plans-for-river-flowing-into.html).