THE NYAZEPETROVSK-SVERDLOVSK WATER DIVERSION PROJECT

Created: 9/1/1976

OCR scan of the original document, errors are possible

The Nyazepetrovsk -Sverdlovsk Water Diversion Project

Wominfl Notice Semlrive Intelligence Sources and Methods Involved (WN INTEL)

NATIONAL SECURITY INFORMATION Unauthorized Disclosure Subject to Criminal Sanctions

THE NYAZEPETROVSK-SVERDLOVSK WATER DIVERSION PROJECT

A new pipelineanal under construction In the Urals region of the Soviet Union wilt bring much-needed water to the industrial city of Sverdlovsk. This wilt be the first to be completed of several currer Soviet schemes to solve major water deficit problems by transferring water from one river basin to another.*

This project will take waterew reservoir on the Ufa River at Nyazepetrovskteel pipelineilometers longributary of the Chusovaya River. The Soviet press has reported that only the firstilometers of the pipeline will be under pressure, with the water flowing downhill for the remainder of the distance. However, good topographic maps indicate that pressure will have to be maintained forilometers to carry the water over the divide between the Ufa and Chusovaya basins. That pointeters above seaeters higher than the reservoir at Nyazepetrovsk.

_No

information Is available on the diameter or the capacity of the pipeline nor on the cost of the project.

The greater flow of the Chusovaya resulting from this influx of water will increase the water supply to two reservoirs on that river. From the lower of these, the Volchlkinsk Reservoir, water will flowew canal, as yet only partially completed, to Sverdlovsk's main weter supply reservoir on the Iset' River. The low divide between the Chusovaya, flowing westward to the Volga River, and thelowing eastward to the Ob* River. Is crossed by this new canal, which in partmaller canal built05 to transfer water across the divide.

The Sverdlovsk area has longater deficit, and planned growth now mu!:es new supplies Imperative. The population of the city proper,5 million, is

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expected to reachillion0 and level off5 million; however, considerable Industrial expansion Ii planned for Sverdlovsk, and both population and Industry are slated to grow significantly In nearby satelliteew strip rolling millapacityillionlanned foreriod at Sverdlovsk's largest Industry, the Uralmash heavy machine building plant; and an associatedeing constructed at Verkhnyaya Pyshma, just north of Sverdlovsk. Additionallso neededegawatt heat and power station under construction In Sverdlowt and for planned Increases In vegetable farming around the

city.

' nefe are also plans for an expanded water ay-item to supply the city's Industrial center and for water purification facilities. Sverdlovsk's industries are scheduled during the nextean to allocateillion rubles to these projects, and funding for the Nyazepetrovsk-Sverdlovsk water diversion may possibly be Included In the* amount. (

Sverdlovsk has toilometers southwest to the Ufa River for water to take advantage of the much heavier rainfall rn the western side of the Urals where the Ufa's sources He. As Atlantic Ocean air masses rise to the Ural creit, they are cooled and drop much of their moisture before they reach the eastern side. The Ufa's tributaries originate In the highest area of the central Urals, where the precipitation Is relatively heavy, and the resultant flow of water In the Ufa fs greater than that In the Chusovaya and other Volga tributaries near Sverdlovsk. Also, the new system willore even seasonal supply to the storage reservoirs of the Sverdlovsk area. The seasonal flow Is more evenly distributed on the western side of the mountains, where onlyoercent of the yearly flow occurs In the spring, compared withercent In the vicinity of Sverdlovsk.

Several similar projects are planned to bring water from the Volga basin lo other Urals cities, but none Is known to be under construction yet. One such project would divert water from the high precipl'.atlon area of the central Urals into the Mlass River, which flows through the large Urals city ofllor.ieters south of Sverdlovsk.

Soviet descriptions of the Urals water supp'y prob! ms include cautions that there are limits to the amount of water that should be transferred from the Volga basin, which Is already short of water in Its lower sections. In these particular cases, however, the amount of water diverted will be an Insignificant part of the total Volga flow and will be more tiian compensated for by the eventual diversion of water Into the Volga by the Kama-Vychegda-Pechora

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Original document.

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