Angara – The Daughter of Baikal

Almost in the middle of Asia, among the wild forested mountains there stretches the largest fresh-water lake of the world - Lake Baikal. Here begins one of the greatest and most wonderful rivers of East Siberia – The River Angara. The territory of The River Angara’s watershed is divided between Irkutsk Region (64%), Krasnoyarsk Territory (30 %) and Bouryatia (6%).

It is the 7^th largest river in Russia after Yenisei, Lena, Ob’, Amur, Volga and Aldan. But no river can compare with Angara in purity and unique transparence of water, determined by the powerful influence of Lake Baikal, especially in its upper reaches down to the city of Irkutsk.

As a rule, any river begins from a little stream. In the whole of Asia, Angara is the only river to come out of a major lake in the form of a powerful current. Its capacity is 60 square km of purest water annually. The Angara rushes towards the River Yenisei making 1779 km away.

At the confluence of the two great rivers, the Angara not only exceeds the River Yenisei by about one third in volume, but it is also twice as wide. It is interesting to note, that for a long way downstream the blue water of the River Angara does not mix with the brownish current of the River Yenisei.

The River Angara is exceptionally useful for hydro-electric power generation, aquatic transportation, water supply, etc. Stability and strength of current, great altitudinal differential (378m) from the upper reaches to the estuary determined its capacity for producing electricity, making it the third large hydro-electric power resource in the country after the rivers Yenisei and Lena. Currently the combined production of electric power of The River Angara chain of power plants (which is more than 48 billion kWt/h) exceeds that of both Yenisei and Volga chains.

However, the construction of the hydro-electric plants brought fundamental changes into the natural and economic conditions and resulted in serious negative effects on the environment. Firstly, it dramatically influenced the hydro-biological regime of The River Angara, blocking natural communication between the river and Lake Baikal and leading to a considerable change in its animal and plant life. Secondly, the most fertile riverside farmlands (about 10% of the total area) were flooded by the reservoirs which resulted, in particular, in acute food supply problem in Irkutsk. Thirdly, a great amount of timber (more than 35 cubic m) along with with the villages, cemeteries and unique rock paintings (106 images of primitive man) was flooded.

On the other hand, the chain of artificial reservoirs has eliminated floods on the River Angara, known as “ice-jams”, which used to occur in wintertime before the construction of the dam. These unique natural phenomena were caused by the powerful influx of the deep, comparatively warm water from Lake Baikal into the river. During freezing which occurred here unusually late in the year (December through February), the “ice-jams” used to take place where the river banks bottle-necked, blocking the current with broken ice and causing the river level to increase dramatically (by several metres). Irkutsk, being the closest to Lake Baikal, suffered most from the damage, when the water flooded its downtown section at -30-40^oC.

The treasures of the Angara Riverside have attracted man since times immemorial. Now about 95 % of the urban population and industries are located along the banks of the River Angara and its major tributaries. Its basin is the richest accumulation of various natural resources in the country. A favourable combination of fuel and energy, minerals, timber, land, aquatic and recreational resources is to be found there. The Angara Riverside region holds countless riches in its land, where iron ore, rock salt, lead, zinc, black and brown coal, gold, phosphates, etc. lie in stock.

A characteristic feature of the economy of the Riverside is the fact that the level of industrial concentration by far exceeds the average for Russia: a lot of industrial installations there being the largest either in Siberia, or in the country, or even in the world (Angarsk Petrochemical Industries Amalgamated “Angarsknefteorgsintez”, Usol’ye-Sibirskoyoe Chemical Industries “Khimprom”, Bratsk and Ust’-Ilimsk Amalgamated Timber Works, Bratsk and Irkutsk Aluminium Plants, etc.).

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