L'eau! Eau, tu n'as ni goût, ni couleur, ni arôme, on ne peut pas te définir,
on te goûte, sans te connaître. Tu n'est pas nécessaire à la vie: tu es la vie.
Water! Water, you have neither taste, nor colour, nor scent. You cannot be defined.
You are savoured, but you remain unknown. You are not a necessity of life: you are life.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
International World Water Day is held annually on 22 March. Being the guardian and the keeper of abundant freshwater resources, the Altaiskiy Biosphere Reserve extends sincere congratulations to its colleagues, friends, partners and the whole world on the occasion of this environmental holiday.
World Water Day is targeted globally at raising public awareness of the issues of sustainable management of freshwater resources.
On this day all state and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), advocating for natural resource conservation and environmental protection, call for governments around the world to give more consideration to the issue of water resource conservation and to undertake concrete measures nationally to protect water resources from man-made impact.
Once considered inexhaustible, freshwater resources are now being depleted at an alarming rate. Many regions around the world face a freshwater deficit and a deficit in water supply for manufacturing and irrigation.
The Altaiskiy Biosphere Reserve houses more than 1,300 lakes, of which almost all are high mountain lakes of different origin. Water bodies of the Reserve cover a total area of 28,623.1 ha*. The largest of them are Lake Teletskoye and the high mountain Dzhulukul Lake (2,200 m above sea level). Lake Teletskoye is the largest reservoir of exceptionally clear freshwater after Baikal. The Teletskoye Lake covers a relatively small area of 223 km², but its impressive depth (medium depth - 175 m, maximum depth (opposite the Korbu waterfall) - 325 m) makes it one of the largest storages of perfect freshwater in the world (40 km³). The transparency of the lake is high, with water visibility ranging from 12 to 15 meters. About 70 rivers and 150 temporary streams flow into the lake, with the Chulyshman River, emptying into the Lake in the south, accounting for 70% of all water inflows. According to a survey carried out by the World Bank economists in 2000, the Teletskoye Lake freshwater supplies are enough to quench the thirst of humanity during the 9-year period.
Water is the only substance that can exist in natural environments in all three states of matter -- solid (ice), liquid, and gas. Life on Earth originated from water, and all life forms depend on water to sustain them. Water is omnipresent – it travels the world in different states of matter – steam, clouds, mist and precipitation, springs and roaring rivers. Water is the world’s most universal solvent. The human body can’t live for long without water and we must replace the fluid we lose on a daily basis.
Apart from well-known and well-researched properties, water does have some obvious properties still posing an enigma and a challenge to contemporary scientists. To these refer the healing properties of baptismal (holy) water and super-ionized water, also called the Sufi water. Water can transmit information, ‘remember” words and thoughts, and trigger the natural healing mechanism in a human body. In 2004-2005 the Altaiskiy Biosphere Reserve hosted a research devoted to the study of the effect produced by Teletskoye Lake waters on a man’s psycho-physiological state involving professor Korobkov’s method (Gas Discharge Visualization method). The study revealed absolutely positive dynamics of a human body after its contact with clear and sacred Altyn-Kol waters.
Ever-progressing industrial civilization leaves the nature naked to man-made hazards. This is precisely why every human being must understand the importance of our common water resources and treat them carefully.
An international World Water Day to celebrate freshwater was recommended at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), best known as The Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In 2003 the United Nations General Assembly in its resolution № A/RES/58/217 proclaimed the years 2005-2015, starting with the International World Water Day celebrated on 22 March 2005, as the International Decade for Action “Water for Life”.
Kseniya Veselovskaya
Information sources: ГорныйАлтай.Ru, materials of the Department of Science of the Altaiskiy Reserve.
* materials of the Altaiskiy State Nature Reserve Territory and Activity Management project approved and sanctioned by the Federal State Unitary Enterprise “West Siberian Forest Construction Company”, Novosibirsk, 2004
Photo source: Internet