ECONOMIC - POWER PLANTS AND IRRIGATION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000600250961-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 1, 2011
• Sequence Number: 961
• Publication Date: October 18, 1949
• Content Type: REPORT

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/07/06: CIA-RDP80-00809A000600250961-7
CENYRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY REPORT
INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN Do(;UMENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS CD NO.
CLASSIFICATION CONFIDENTIAL
COUNTRY USSR DATE OF
INFORMATION 1949
SUBJECT Economic - PPwer plants :roil 'I,rigation
HOW
PUBLISHED bimonthly periodical
WHERE
PUBLISHED Moscow
DATE
PUBLISHED ?may/Jun 19)49
LANGUAGE Rueet_an
TDt6 DOCDO~DT CDYTAI66 INFODNATOII AS/ICTIIII TNS NAIIOYA:. 011511/1
DI TON AKITOD STAINS ?ITAIS TWO 11011111. OF ISPIOMAIN ACT NO
_. ......, .. ...511..0 ITS fA.SilStlAN OS TM^ Rde1*TDS
SOURCE Gei rhf iya v Shkole; No 3, 1949.
DATE DIST. /foot 1949
NO. OF PAGES
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
TRANSFORMATION OF A SOVIEP RIVER SYSTEM
When forest belts have been planted to the edges of the deserts around the
Caspian Sea, the next task will be to transform the deserts into productive land.
In the accomplishment of this task, it is necessary to consider the water poten-
tialities of three basins, those of the Volga River, Aral Sea, and the 0b and
Yenisey Rivers.
The Volga basin will not be able to contribute to the task stated above.
Agriculture upstream makes heavy demands on its water resources. To irrigate
the dry Caspian Lowland, comprising 44 million hectares, would require not
loss than 240 cubic kilometers of water per year. To Irrigate this area, even
by using water i'rom the Ural, Kura, and Terek Rivers, might require 180 cubic
kilometers from the Volga. When It Is considered that the flow of the Volga
equals 255 cubic kilometers per year and supplies 80 percent of the water added
to the Caspian Sea, it is evident that a withdrawal of 180 cubic kilometers is
out of the question.
Calculations have indicated that diverting water from the northern rivers
(Pechora, Vichegda, Onega) and from the Sea of Azov to bolster the falling
level of the Caspian Sea would add not more than 25 - ho cubic kilometers per
year .
The idea of reducing the area of the Caspian Sea by cutting off its bays
with the goal of reducing evaporation losses in inadmissible because studies have
shown that the flaw of Central Asian and Kazakhstan :avers is closely commected
with circulating air masses caturated with moisture evaporated from the surface
of the Caspian Sea, Therefore, a measure which would reduce the 75 - 100 cubic
kilometers of water which the Caspian Sea now receives from these rivers in its
basin, east be opposed.
The flaw of water from the Amu-Darya and Syr-Darya Rivers into the Aral
See, amounts to 56 cubic kilometers per year. This inflow maintains the present
water level of the Aral Sea,
[STATE
MAY
NAYY
AIR
CLASSIFICATION
NSRB
CONFIDENTIAL
50X1-HUM
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/07/06: CIA-RDP80-00809A000600250961-7 M
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/07/06: CIA-RDP80-00809A000600250961-7
Central Asia Is important to the Soviet Union ne a cotton-growing region.
There are more than 100 million hectares of land mxitable for crop growing, for
which the climate is outstandingly favorable. Potentials for grain production
and cattle raising are enormous. In addition, Central Asia has oil, iron ore,
nonferrous metal and rare metal. ores, and chemical resources. The main obstacle
to making extensive use of the riches of Central. Asia and Kazakhstan is the lack
ing about a million hectares of land, Adding the land under irrigation at
present, the total amounts to about 8 percent of land suitable for Irrigation.
The water requirements of the 7orare .oaland (Turanskaya Nizmennost') for
and 20 million hectares of desert are ritimated at about 250 cubic kilometers per
year. To stabilize the eater supply in the Caspian Sea and to hold it at the
required l6vol requires about 75 - 100 cubic kilor-'-re of water per year. Thus,
the total amount of water needed for the Turana Lowland Is estimated at 300 - 350
cubic kilometers peer year.
The Ob, Yenieey, helms, and other rivers of the northeastern USSR have an
abundance of water, which drains into the Fare. Sea. The Ob end Yenisey annually
discharge an average of 942 cubic kilometers of water into the sea. The indicated
annual water requirement for irrigation within the limits of their basins amounts
to only 32 cubic kilometers for lrrigsting 10 - 12 million 'iectares of steppe in
Went Siberia.
So, the thought arises whether a part of the Siberian water could be diverted
to the Aral-Caspian basin where it could be used to maximum ad.vaniage. The diver-
sion would be accomplished by the construction of dame and a system of connecting
canals.
On the Ob, below the inflow of the Irtyah and near the village of Belogor'ye
a 78-meter-high dam, impounding water to a height of 75 meters above sea level,
could be built. It would create a 250,000-sq'iare-kilometer reservoir capable of
holding 4,1460 cubic kilometers of water. At Ba'ogor'ya, the flow of the Ob
amounts to about 10,000 cubic motors per second or 327 cubic kilometers per year.
Along with the dam, a hydroelectric power station would the built at Belogor'ye.
With a Capacity of 5,600,000 kilowatts and annual generation of 31 billion kilo-
watt hours of power, it would be an all-sufficient source of power for the indus-
trial Urals, 500 - 600 kilometers distant,
The Ob reservoir would spread out upeiream -long the Ob, Irtysh, and Tobol
rivers and reach the northern slope of the Aral - Irtysh water divide (the Turgay
Gateway). From the city of Kau r;aa along the valleys of the Tobol and Ubogan
(Tobol tributary) rivers, the water divide would be breached t~ a canal out to
an average depth o: 40 meters and t' a maximum depth of 75 meters. The canal
would be 930 kilometers long from its northern ertrem'ty to its southern terminus
at Chelkar-Tengie lake and could carry a flow of water 20 motors deep.
At the point of outflow from the canal on the southern slope of Qhe vote-
divide, a 10-meter drop wruld result at Turgay where a one-million-'I,ov,tt hf.lro-
electric plant could be built. Tbie plant could generate 6.5 billion kilowatt
hours of power arnsially.. A part of the water from the Turgay COW would be used
for irrigation of the steppe areas extending to the directions of the Aral Sea,
Irgiz, Turgety, and Kazalinsk, the remainder would flow towards the Aral Sea.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/07/06: CIA-RDP80-00809A000600250961-7
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/07/06: CIA-RDP80-00809A000600250961-7
During the growing aeaeon, the water from the Aral reservoir would be applied
to irrigating about 2 million hectares of land along the shores of the sea. By
getting the winter flow of water, the reservoir would offer a potential 300 cubic
kilometers of water for irrigation purposes curing the growing season, a quantity
which would assure irrigation of 'vast areas of the Kpzyl-Kum Desert, By means of
a connecting canal, the water from the Aral Sea would enter the fiery-Rezgsh
Depression and r_ee to a height cf 51 meters, The Sary-Kamysh reservoir would
cover morn than 1C,000 og?,.are kilometers,
While the Sary-K erh Deiirescion