KFU scientists have studied many lakes in the Republic after local population’s requests.

After locals of the Laishevo Municipal District addressed the researchers with a request to find out why their neighboring lakes are visibly drying up, the team under Professor Nafisa Mingazova’s guidance discovered that many of them are indeed close to disappearance.

The most thoroughly researched lake was Arkhiyereyskoye (Archbishop’s Lake), one of the largest in our province with over 60 hectares of water surface and 20 meters of depth.

“The lake and its feeding ground are a single system. If the water body has underground catchment, its total size should be at least the same as the lake, and if the catchment is from the surface, its size is at least ten times the size of the lake. If the banks are polluted, inhabited, used for transportation or agriculture, the underground feeding may be weakened, and shallowing then follows. The second reason in the case of Laishevo District is intense consumption of underground water,” explains Mingazova.

The scientists are especially concerned about the southern part of Arkhiyereyskoye. It’s covered with Canadian pondweed, a plant famously known as “water plague” because of its detrimental influence on smaller water bodies.

After the analysis, recommendations for lake regeneration were compiled and submitted to the residents of Tarlashi village, who commissioned the report.

As the interviewee adds, employees and students of the Department of Environmental Engineering and Water Resources Management have been studying the lakes of Laishevo District for a few years.

“We’ve studied lakes in villages Usady, Stolbishche, and Pigali. Much has been done, and much lies ahead,” says Mingazova.

Source text: Larisa Busil

Photo: Wikipedia

Translation: Yury Nurmeev