A forest fire in Kazakhstan's Abai region has killed 14 people. The area of the fire has exceeded 60,000 hectares. Due to the fire, the city of Semey entered a state of emergency. Kazakh President Tokayev postponed his trip to Vietnam, intending to fly to the fire zone in the Abai region. The military has been involved in fighting fires in the Abai area, and the Minister of Defense has also gone to the scene. Kazakh President Tokayev dismissed Yuri Ilyin as Minister of Emergency Situations and appointed a new minister.
It is reported that the forest fire was caused by lightning strikes.
Micro-comment: The recent water outages in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and other cities including the capital are on the one hand, the reason for the old water supply pipe network, and more importantly, the recent high temperature weather in Central Asian countries, the water consumption has increased significantly, and the precipitation has decreased. This is also the reason for the forest fires in Abai State. Water resources are the most sensitive and important resource in Central Asia, where most of its rivers originate in the Tian Shan, Pamir Plateau and Altai Mountains, and are mostly international rivers. There have been international conflicts over water resources before, and if drought persists, new conflicts cannot be ruled out. The total amount of water resources is almost fixed, but the population and industrial and agricultural water consumption of Central Asia are increasing significantly, and it is necessary to establish a water distribution organization covering all Central Asian countries and surrounding countries.
