Lake Ebi-Nur

The bitter-salty waters of Lake Ebi-Nur, as well as the waters of numerous swamps surrounding the main body of water, splash in the northwest of China. The lake adorns Dzungaria, a flat desert area between the Dzungarian Alatau, the Mongolian Altai and the Tien Shan. However, without serious measures to save the reservoir, it may very soon disappear this century, leaving behind a deadly desert.

The area varies greatly depending on the season and water level. Historically, the area reached about 1,200 km2, but in recent decades it has significantly decreased, sometimes to 500 km2 or less.
The length reaches 80 km.
The width is up to 40 km.
The maximum depth is 15 m.
The average depth is usually less than 2 meters.
The height above sea level is 189 m.
There are several islands in different parts of the lake, and during periods of partial shallowing, a sandy embankment comes to the surface, which divides the reservoir into two separate parts. Usually in such cases, the deeper half reached 15 meters in depth, and in the second part the brine layer did not exceed 2 meters. However, in 2007, after the lake had noticeably shrunk and shallowed, its maximum depth barely approached 3 meters.

Why did this happen? Like all lakes with a similar mineral composition, Ebi-Nur is drainless. Its water comes from the mountain rivers Jergalan, Karasu, Jinhe and Boro Tala, and decreases only due to evaporation. In the 70s of the last century, several streams feeding the lake ceased to exist. From about the same time, the population in the vicinity of the lake began to increase and, accordingly, the need for water for irrigation of cultivated land increased. This coincided with periods of precipitation scarcity. As a result, the desert, which was already chasing the shoreline of the lake, began to advance with greater speed, annually reclaiming up to 50 square meters of coast.

The authorities of the Chinese province of Xinjiang sounded the alarm and began to take measures to strictly conserve water (which is very difficult to do in a developing region), as well as to artificially replenish the lake.

Depending on the amount of precipitation in the lake basin, the degree of mineralization of its waters varies from year to year. Usually the concentration is not lower than 87 grams per liter, which does not contribute to the development of higher aquatic organisms here. There are no fish or plants in the lake. Some representatives of the ichthyofauna, who accidentally got into the Ebi-Nur, can only live in the mouths of flowing rivers.

Despite the absence of fish in the reservoir itself, the ecosystem of the lake is rich and diverse. There are countless birds and other wildlife in the surrounding marshes. More than 320 species of wild plants and 111 species of birds have chosen these places as their home. The wetlands of the Ebi-Nur ecosystem are so important for this part of Eurasia that China has awarded them the status of a national natural reserve.

If Ebi-Nur ever disappears from the face of the Earth, a huge lifeless space filled with salt deposits will remain in its place. All the northern regions of China will be affected by this environmental disaster. Already, the number of dust storms in the Dzungarian Valley has increased from 13 to 110 per year. Salty sand (or rather, microscopic salt crystals) is scattered around the area in the amount of 4.8 million tons per year. This not only worsens soil fertility in neighboring areas, but also entails more serious anthropogenic consequences in the form of deadly diseases and epidemics among the local population. Salt dust has already accelerated the melting of glaciers in Bortala Prefecture, and may subsequently change the climate throughout Northern China. Saving Ebi-Nur is a matter of principle not only for ornithologists or limnologists, but also for all residents of this region of China and the neighboring regions of Kazakhstan.

It is no exaggeration to say that China has declared war on the desert. Hoping to fill Ebi-Nur at least to its former state, and ideally also to reduce the existing lifeless areas, the Chinese use special rain devices and rocket launchers, and try various methods to turn steam condensate hovering over the lake into water. A project to connect natural underground water reservoirs with tributaries of the bitter-salty Ebinur is also being considered. However, so far in this war, nature is gaining the upper hand over people, because the restoration of such a large reservoir requires enormous financial investments, as well as coordinated work by scientists and authorities.