Nikiforova Ye.А., Iskendirova S.B.

Kostanay State University, Кazakhstan

Influence of Reservoirs’ of the Kostanay region Pollution on the Livelihood of People

Water undoubtedly plays a great role in the life of every living being and people are not an exception. Bodies in general are constituted on 70-80% of water, which serves many important functions from providing a favourable medium for chemical reactions to being hydrostatic skeleton, i.e. the system of body’s shape maintaining.

Water is known to penetrate a human body with food, lungs and skin, as well as consumed directly. The source of water traditionally is water reservoirs situated in the neighbourhood of people’s habitats. Thus, the main source of water supply in the Kostanay region is the Tobol river with its tributaries.

The Tobol is a transboundary river flowing along the territory of two states – the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation: the territory of the river is a part of its basin, situated in the Kostanay, Chelyabinsk and Kurgan regions. Besides, in the Kostanay region there are ten storage reservoirs for catering for domestic and potable needs of cities, farms, gardening societies and industrial purposes. It is evident that these reservoirs are polluted due to intensive economic activities of people.

To identify the level of water pollution the index of WPI (water pollution index) is used. WPI - an aggregate marker based on several factors such as pollutants (nitrates, nitrites, ammonia nitrogen, heavy metals, oil products, etc.) concentration, hydrobionts characteristics, trophicity and saprobity of water reservoirs [1] - of the Tobol on average is 1.46, which corresponds to the third class – that of moderately polluted waters. The tributaries of the Tobol – Ayat (WPI 1.7), Togyzak (WPI 1.8) also enter the category of moderately polluted ones.
It is worth mentioning that the Tobol basin is characterized by the high content of iron up to 4 MAC (maximum allowable concentrations), manganese - from 3.6 to 23 MACs, copper - from 1.3 to 7 MACs, which is due to natural factors. The high content of the mentioned above components in natural complexes of the catchment area influences ground waters, unloading of which is carried out onto the river valley. This is especially relevant in winter time, when the river is fed exclusively by ground waters. At the same time in the Kostanay region there are six sanctioned water discharges into surface water reservoirs by the following plants:

· Branch of “Kazakhstan Aluminium JSC (discharge of pit waters into the system of the Karamsa-Kenderly lakes);

· “Kostanay-su”SCE (discharge of washings of filter station water treatment into the Tobol);

· “Zhitikarakomunenergo” SCE (discharge of washings of filter station water treatment into the Shortandy);

· “ Priozerny Mine” Ltd CRK (discharge of pit waters into the lake Kushmurun);

· “Verhnetobol hatchery” SCE (discharge into the Tobol);

· “Shaimerden” JSC (discharge of pit waters into the system of the Karakol-Koyandykopa lares). 

Discharge of wastewater into surface reservoirs is about 30% total discharge volume (in 2008 – 32.943 mln. m³, in 2009– 29.9 mln.m³ ) . For example, total volume of wastewater discharge into the environment (surface reservoirs, water storages, filtration fields, terrain) is on average about 100 mln.м³ annually (2008 – 107.567 mln. m³, 2009 – 94.3 mln.m³). The main share of the total water discharge volume is industrial effluents (66%). But we must not disregard the existence of sewer waters discharge.
It is worth mentioning that there are currently wastewater treatment plants in all towns of the Kostanay region (Rudny, Lisakovsk, Zhitikara) as well as in Kachar urban village. The exception to the scheme in the regional center - Kostanay, wastewater treatment plants in which are represented by ground sumps, incorporating three parallel plots sized 182m х 87m, fenced by dumbs working alternately with the total area of 107.6 thous.m ². Tha plant has been in operation since 1966. So, it is natural that the currently used technology of wastewaters purification does not meet up-to-date requirements and allows to purify waters only partially of mechanical impurities, which is justified by the results of chemical tests concerning сonstant MAC excess. It is expected that with the introduction of modern wastewater treatment plants discharge of pollutants into the environment will dramatically decrease. Because of its high cost the question of building of wastewaters’ biological purification station in Kostanay enters the List of Priority Investment Projects Funded by the Republican Budget of the Register of Environmental Issues.

One more problem connected with water pollution in the Kostanay region is the existence of the storage of industrial effluents of former copper-ammonia plant in Kostanay, especially taking into the account the fact that the storage is situated in the water protection zone of the Tobol river. It is worth mentioning that the very plant terminated its work as early as the 80s, but even nowadays on the site of the storage there is an excess of MAC on copper and there exists the danger of the Tobol pollution. To get rid of the pollution, as it is in the case with the building of wastewaters’ biological purification station in Kostanay, funding from the republican budget is necessary [2].

So, let us note the fact that environment pollution on the whole affects the quality of fresh water, which has long-term consequences. Among the main reasons of water quality deterioration on local, state and global levels the following ones may be singled out: industries development, intensive agricultural technologies appearance, exponential population quantity growth as well as the production and use of dozens of thousands of synthetic chemical substances. The main problem of water pollution is connected with actual and planned water use.

Diseases, arising from the ingestion of pathogens from contaminated water, affect people’s health all over the world. According to WHO 80% of all diseases and more than a third of fatalities in developing countries are caused by the consumption of contaminated water. Thus, water-related diseases constitute a separate category of diseases causing infant mortality.

Economic consequences of water pollution may be serious enough due to their harmful effect on people’s health or the environment. Health deterioration often decreases the effectiveness of people’s labour, whereas the destruction of the environment decreases the productivity of water resources directly used by people [3, p.77].

All the mentioned above justifies the necessity of addressing environmental issues on local, state and global levels.

Reference:

1. Dictionaries and Encyclopedia on Academician [Electronic resource] URL: http://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/ruwiki/939741

2. Official Internet Resource of the Kostanay Region Akimat [Electronic resource] URL: http://www.kostanay.gov.kz/rus/struktura _vlasti-61%7C74%7C76%7C105%7C559/620-analitika.html

3. Orlov D.S. Environment Management and Hydrosphere Protection with Chemical Pollution: Manual/ Orlov D.S, Sadovnikova L.K., Lozanovskaya I.N. - M.: High School, 2012. – 167 p.