The idea of turning the routes of Siberian rivers to the south originally emerged in 1965. The main aim was to supply Central Asia with water, particularly to increase rice and cotton harvests. After two decades of discussion, the program was ready to be implemented in 1986, but was shelved when it encountered strong public opinion opposition.
But President Nursultan Nazarbayev, whose country has a mainly arid climate and is one third of covered by the planet's largest dry steppe, played down the risks that emerged in the 1980s.
"It was said then that it [the program] would yield negative results, but nothing of the kind would happen - even swamps would not dry out," he said.
However, the 66-year-old leader, who has been in power in what is now the world's ninth biggest country since the late Soviet era, said any plans would be expensive and would have to be thoroughly considered.
In 2002, Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov said the program should be resurrected and proposed laying a channel from Khanty-Mansiisk in Siberia to Kazakhstan and Central Asia to sell 6-7% of the huge Ob River to agricultural and industrial producers in Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and possibly Turkmenistan.
But Leonid Polezhayev, the governor of Siberia's Omsk Region, also said in 2002 said the planned volume of Siberian waters to be channeled to Central Asia could not solve regional countries' problems and added that there would be unpredictable consequences for the environment.
