The Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources, Yerlan Nysanbayev, has commented on the activities of the so-called ‘rain man’ – Altai Aynabek, who invented a device for artificially inducing rain in order to restore the Aral Sea.
According to Informburo.kz, the ecology minister noted that the inventor's approach has no evidence of practical application. Nysanbayev stated that on the days Aynabek was causing rain, Kazhydromet’s weather forecasts already predicted precipitation.
‘The forecast for the first ten days was accurate. In the opinion of scientists and relevant forecasting institutions worldwide, this approach has been studied and has no evidence of practical application. We took an interest in the Aral case and invited our specialists from Kazhydromet. According to our forecasts, it was supposed to rain there on those days. Therefore, if we are talking about the position of scientists around the world, there is no need to believe in this,’ said Nysanbayev.
According to the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea, the size of the Aral has shrunk by almost ten times over recent decades; however, since the beginning of this year, the volume of water in the northern part of the sea has begun to increase again.
Meanwhile, the founder of FBRK, Kirill Pavlov, posted a video on his YouTube channel several years ago about artificial devices that were supposedly meant to cause rain.
At that time, several rain-making devices were installed in the Mangystau Region. It was assumed they would increase precipitation by 30%. The cost of the devices ranged from 5 to 10 million euros.
Pavlov visited the region to see what such large sums were being spent on and concluded that this kind of rain device does not affect the amount of precipitation. In the expert’s opinion, some interested parties are merely trying to enrich themselves using it.