General assessment of surface and subsurface water quality in Southern Kazakhstan region

This study is proposed to provide a general overview of surface and subsurface water quality in Southern Kazakhstan region. In order to review the hydrological and hydrochemical properties of the surface and subsurface water resources, some case studies are selected and analyzed in this thesis. These cases studies included the Syr Darya River, Aral Sea and Balkhash Lake as surface water resources as well as groundwater resources of Kentau and Turkestan cities. According to the result of the Syr Darya River water quality data obtained from 7 monitoring stations during 1970-2010, the river waters were found to be highly contaminated by heavy metals particularly after Aralsk station. Based on water quality data of Small Aral Sea in 1994-2010, the distributions of substances are determined within the Small Aral Sea using 15 monitoring stations. The water quality of Balkhash Lake is then reviewed based on the data of Kawabata (1999) and obtained the distributions of substances in western parts of Lake. As a result, the numerous parameters were found to be above the standard values. The subsurface water quality of Kentau and Turkistan cities is better than surface water quality. Only Pb and Ni concentrations were above the standard in Kentau region. Furthermore, groundwater resources of Turkestan city were also contaminated mostly by Pb, SO4 and Mg. Finally, possible rehabilitation techniques for surface and subsurface water resources were explained and were recommended.