Kyrgyzstan’s Lake Issyk-Kul May Die as Aral Sea has Unless It Gets More Water from River in China, Bishkek Experts Say

Paul Goble

              Staunton, June 10 – The rapid melting of glaciers in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan has seriously reduced the flow of water into Lake Issyk-Kul and put it on course to follow the Aral Sea into oblivion, according to Kyrgyz scholars. The only salvation they see is to get more water from a river whose waters now go almost exclusively into China.

              Diverting some of the flow of the Sary-Dzhas river is an idea that arose “already in Soviet times,” these experts say. Indeed, at that time, “a detailed plan” was worked up but never carried out (ritmeurasia.ru/news--2026-06-10--kirgiziju-vserez-trevozhit-sudba-ozera-issyk-kul-88266).

              “Today,” they suggest, “this initiative again is being considered as one of the most effective means of resolving the problem” of Lake Issyk-Kul’s falling water levels, with experts saying dams could be build and the electricity generated sent to China in exchange for the water.

              Whether China will agree to that is not clear, but unless Bishkek and Beijing can reach some sort of agreement, it seems likely that the water levels of Lake Issyk-Kul will continue to fall – and the amount of water