Lake Baikal, the world’s largest freshwater lake is under threat. It lies around 9,200 kilometres east of Moscow and holds about one fifth of the world’s freshwater.
Illegal logging, construction and mineral mining are among the threats which some blame for the fact the water level in the lake has reached its lowest in 60 years.
“We see a phenomenon here that the lowering of the water level compared to this time last year is connected to a natural factor – less water entering Baikal which scientists did not expect.
‘The fact that more water was pumped through the Irkutsk hydroelectric power station led them to expect a high level of water in the lake,” explained environmentalist Marina Rikhvanova.
The lake’s water level dropped by 40 centimetres compared to 2013 falling to 456.09 metres and that’s just nine centimetres over the minimum admissible level set by the Russian government.
Environmentalists say that extremely hot and dry summers and felling forests around the lake c
