It has been revealed how much Kazakhstan has paid for Volga water from Russia for the West Kazakhstan Region over the last 10 years. Initially, in 2013, we paid 1.2 billion tenge for it, but now we are being issued invoices of up to 6 billion.
This concerns water from the Volga, which enters Kazakhstan's territory via the Saratov Main Canal. This energy-intensive process involves several powerful pumping stations, for the maintenance of which the Russian side requires compensation.
The Telegram channel “PROTENGE” has published year-by-year data, provided in response to their enquiry.
- 2013 – 1.2 billion tenge;
- 2014 – 1.3 billion tenge;
- 2015 – 1.2 billion tenge;
- 2016 – 1.5 billion tenge;
- 2017 – 1.7 billion tenge;
- 2018 – 1.9 billion tenge;
- 2019 – 2.3 billion tenge;
- 2020 – 2.9 billion tenge;
- 2021 – 4.1 billion tenge;
- 2022 – 8.2 billion tenge;
- 2023 – 6.3 billion tenge.
It is reported that according to the plan for 2024, “for reimbursement of costs for supplying Volga water”, it is planned to spend 6.3 billion tenge (the amount may be adjusted by the end of the year). As we can see, over 10 years the bills have accumulated to more than 30 billion tenge.
It is noted that back in 2018, senators requested 1 billion tenge for the construction of the Zhapaltak Reservoir in the West Kazakhstan Region. However, the reservoir project remained stuck at the stage of calculations and discussions.