Krasnodar Territory has been a subject of the Russian Federation since 1937. It is located in the southwest of the country and is part of the Southern Federal District.
Types of water bodies
In order to proceed to the description of the water bodies of this territorial unit of the Russian Federation, it is necessary to clarify what this concept is.
A reservoir is a temporary or permanent accumulation of water, stagnant or with reduced flow, in natural or artificial depressions. This term is also applicable to the seas and oceans, but in a broader sense. Temporary can be called oxbow lakes and puddles, that is, those hydro facilities that occur at certain periods of the year, most often during spring and autumn floods.
Ponds of the edge
The permanent objects of this type include lakes, ponds, reservoirs and specific reservoirs of the Krasnodar Territory - estuaries. Reservoirs are divided into artificial and natural. The first ones arereservoirs, dams, ponds and pools.
All of the above hydroelectric facilities are available in the Kuban, most of which is occupied by the Krasnodar Territory. In the southwest and northwest, the territory of the region is washed by the waters of the Black and Azov Seas, respectively. These are the largest natural reservoirs in the Krasnodar Territory.
Sea of the Krasnodar Territory
The Black Sea is washed by the border of the region from the Psou River, which serves as the border with Abkhazia, to Cape Tuzla. The Kerch Strait connects it with the Sea of Azov, which is 11 times smaller than the Black Sea in area. The Sea of Azov is the smallest sea in Russia. In ancient times, it was called the Maeotian swamp.
These reservoirs of the Krasnodar Territory are very different from each other. So, the greatest depth of the Black Sea is 2210 (2245) meters, while the Azov is only 14. The water in the first is very s alty and below 200 meters is saturated with hydrogen sulfide, while in the second natural reservoir, it is desalinated by large rivers - the Kuban and Don, s alt contains little. The shores of the Black Sea are covered mainly with pebbles, while those of the Sea of Azov are covered with shell rock and sand. And if up to 180 species of fish are found in the Black Sea, 40 of which are commercial, then until recently the Azov Sea was generally considered the richest in fish stocks in the country.
The largest freshwater lake
In addition to the seas, lakes are major natural hydroelectric facilities. Abrau, Kardyvach and Psenodakh are fresh water bodies of this type in the Krasnodar Territory. the biggestThe freshwater drainless lake of the Krasnodar Territory is the Abrau reservoir, located on the peninsula of the same name (Abrausky), 14 km from Novorossiysk. The reservoir is really large - its length is 3,100 meters, width - 630. Depth in some places reaches 11 meters.
The area of the mirror is 0.6 square kilometers. Scientists argue about its origin - someone considers it karst, someone - formed as a result of a landslide. There are suggestions that the lake is a remnant of the ancient Cimmerian freshwater basin. The lake is very clean, as evidenced by the presence of a large number of crayfish on the banks. In addition to them, the Abrau kilka is also found here. As noted above, the lake is drainless, and only one river, the Durso, flows into it, as well as numerous mountain streams. And yet, having no natural drains, the lake becomes shallow. Shallows and silts, despite the measures taken. Next to it there is a small Dolphin Lake, the depth of which reaches 7 meters. It is adapted to work with marine animals - a dolphinarium has been built here.
Interesting names
The name of the reservoirs of the Krasnodar Territory, each of them, sounds very beautiful and mysterious and is often shrouded in some kind of legend. Lake Abrau and the Durso River flowing into it, united in the name of the rural district, are associated with a beautiful legend about unhappy love. And the name of the second largest reservoir in the Krasnodar Territory, Lake Kardyvach, is translated from the Abaza language as “in a clearing inside a hollow.”
LakeKardyvach
All reservoirs of the Krasnodar Territory are beautiful, Kardyvach is often called the lake of dreams. Located 44 km from the now world-famous resort of Krasnaya Polyana, located at an altitude of 1838 meters above sea level, this almost regular oval-shaped reservoir is a favorite place for tourists and part of a biosphere reserve. Often the lake is called a mirror - in addition to beautiful shores, it reflects the snow-capped peaks of the mountains.
The Mzymta River flowing from it is the longest of all rivers and streams flowing into the Black Sea. The length of the lake reaches 500 meters, width - 360, depth - 17 meters. It should be added that the lake, located on the southern slope of the Main Caucasian Range, changes color - from emerald green in spring to bright blue in summer.
Lake Psenodakh
The third largest is the lake of the Lago-Naki plateau - Psenodakh, located at an altitude of more than 1900 meters. The shape of this lake is interesting - it resembles a smile. The reservoir is shallow - no more than a meter (the greatest depth reaches 3 m). The lake is interesting because periodically, and often for unknown reasons, it disappears, and then reappears. And when it exists and is filled with water, it is an amazingly beautiful sight - surrounded by meadows and framed by mountain peaks, it is filled with clear and clean water.
Other lakes of the Krasnodar Territory
Near the Black and Azov Seas there are s alt lakes, which were formed as a result of the appearance of an alluvial shaft that separated the reservoirs from the sea. Healingmud found in such lakes as Khanskoye, Golubitskoye and Solenoye, Chemburka and Sudzhukskoye are used for medicinal purposes. The same s alt lakes with healing mud are also found in the steppe zones - near Armavir there are two Ubezhensky lakes - Small and Big.
There are lakes like the Old Kuban, which was formed from the old channel of the Kuban River. It is interesting in that its waters serve to cool the Krasnodar thermal power plant. It is also used for fish breeding, and more recently for recreational purposes (swimming and recreational fishing).
Estudies
The natural reservoirs of the Krasnodar Territory are also a huge array of lagoon and floodplain natural reservoirs called estuaries. They are located at the mouth of the Kuban River and cover an area of 1300 sq. km. Their depth ranges from 0.5 to 2.5 meters. They occurred as a result of the processes of formation on the site of the sea bay of the river delta. This happened as a result of the formation of a shell spit, which fenced off the bay from the Black and Azov seas. There are many of them - below are some of the names of the reservoirs of the Krasnodar Territory. The estuaries Akhtanizovsky and Kiziltashsky, Yeysky, Beisugsky and Kirpilsky have always been considered the largest. The entire array of estuaries of the Kuban is divided into three systems - Taman, Central and Akhtar-Grivna. They combine both lagoonal estuaries located near the sea, and floodplain - remote from it. There are on the territory of the region and plavni.
Reservoirs
Artificial reservoirs of the Krasnodar Territoryrepresented by the following reservoirs - Atakaysky and Varnavinsky, Krasnodar and Kryukovsky, Neberdzhaevsky and Shapsugsky.
Only in the Kuban basin on the territory of the Krasnodar Territory there are 10 reservoirs. The largest not only in the region, but throughout the entire North Caucasus is the Krasnodar reservoir, finally filled with water and put into operation in 1975. It absorbed the Tshchik reservoir located here earlier. The purpose of its formation was to combat floods in the lower reaches of the Kuban (such tributaries of the Kuban as Belaya, Pshish, Marta, Apchas, Shunduk, Psekups flow into it) and rice growing.
Protection and use
The use and protection of water bodies of the Krasnodar Territory are carried out by services of various departments. So, reservoirs are used to maintain the required water level for the possibility of navigation. All reservoirs, except for saline ones, are used to irrigate areas with insufficient moisture, to ensure normal irrigation of fields, including rice ones.
The state of water bodies is constantly monitored within the framework of sanitary and epidemiological surveillance and monitoring. The state of water quality is monitored at 297 sampling points. 42 are located in reservoirs of the I category (household and drinking supply), 136 - of the II category (swimming, sports, recreation of the population), 119 - of the III (fishery purpose) category. From May 15 until the end of the summer holiday season, laboratory monitoring of water quality is carried out every ten days. There is a constantexplanatory work with the population about the inadmissibility of pollution of water bodies.
Bad environment
The ecological state of the reservoirs of the Krasnodar Territory is determined on the basis of information received by the control authorities. It can be stated that there are plenty of problems in the reservoirs of the region. These include depletion of fish stocks, degradation of water bodies - shallowing, silting, overgrowing of estuaries, waterlogging. Erosion of the coast, discharges of prohibited city waters, contamination of the natural environment with toxic industrial waste, as well as radioactive contamination of the territory and much more, even resulted in acid rain. It was in the Krasnodar Territory that the greatest changes occurred as a result of water-chemical reclamation, which negatively affected the condition of the soil - due to its oversaturation, up to 50% of chemical fertilizers were washed into water bodies, which could not but lead to disastrous results.
