Irkutsk: The intensive melting of large snow reserves in East Siberia is rapidly enlarging water supply to the Baikal Lake and other ponds of the Angara hydropower plant cascade.
The water level of the world`s deepest freshwater lake, Baikal, is seven centimetres up, a source at the territorial branch of the Federal Water Resources Agency told
Itar-Tass.
Further developments will depend on weather conditions of this summer. Hydropower plants are interested in a large water influx, but there are certain limits on the size of
water reservoirs.
A government resolution of March 2001 said that the Baikal volume must not exceed 457.0 metres in the Pacific dimension and must not be smaller than 456.0 metres. Bigger fluctuations are harmful for river transport, water supply to residential areas, security of the coastal segment of the Trans-Siberian railroad, and ecology of the lake.
PTI
