Balkhash
Can artists stand up for natural boundaries, preserve lakes or plant forests? It turns out they can. Aigerim Kapar, contemporary art curator, founder of the contemporary art and public interaction platform ‘Artcom Platform’, co-initiator of the movement to preserve lakes in Astana ‘SOS Taldykol’, and the project on care about Lake Balkhash ‘Balqashqa Qamqor’, told about how artists respond to environmental challenges, how they engage the society and government institutions in problem-solving. (more…)
Now Balkhash is a natural site. If a nuclear power plant is built on the lake, it will turn into an industrial pond. It will let China limit the Ili river flow feeding the lake, and the new load on the lake will generally lead to the irreversible degradation of the Balkhash ecosystem. This is what experts told to CABAR.asia. (more…)
Balkhash, the largest lake in Kazakhstan (14th in the world), could dry up and repeat the fate of the Aral Sea due to China’s intensive water withdrawal, unsustainable agriculture and the effects of climate change.