Grand Stavropol Canal

The rivers of the Stavropol Territory Kuban , Terek , Kuma with its tributaries - mainly provide the southern and southwestern parts of the territory. The main one: central, northeastern and eastern - remain practically waterless. Two-thirds of the region’s agricultural land is located in the risky farming zone, where there is no alternative to creating an irrigation-watering system. The decision to create the most ambitious irrigation and irrigation system in the European part of the USSR that feed the Kalaus River with the waters of the Kuban was made by the government two days before the attack on Nazi Germany by the Soviet Union. The war delayed its implementation for sixteen years.

In 1957, hydrobuilders began to create the Kuban-Kalauskaya watering and irrigation system, called the Great Stavropol Canal (BSK). Its task is to complete the flooding of the arid Central Ciscaucasia. The canal begins at the city of Ust-Dzheguta on the Kuban River , ends at the Chograisk reservoir on the Vostochny Manych River . The length of the Great Stavropol Canal is 480 km.

Stages of commissioning

In total, there were 4 stages in the construction of the canal:

• I stage (March 28, 1957-1967)
• Stage II (1969-1975)
• III stage (1974-1979)
• Stage IV (1986-1992; renewed in 1999-2008)
• V, VI stage (project)

I

It begins its history on March 28, 1957, when the first soil bucket was excavated at the southern edge of the village of Ust-Dzhegutinskaya . Soon, a powerful dam blocked the Kuban, forming the Ust-Dzhegutinsky reservoir. Its useful volume is 475 million cubic meters of water. The length of the dam is 7 kilometers, the area of ​​the mirror is 50 square kilometers. The coastline along the perimeter is 34.5 kilometers. Pumping water from the reservoir lasts from late September to May. In the summer, up to 180 cubic meters of water per second are supplied through the Great Stavropol Canal. About 115 of them go in transit for irrigation and irrigation of dry lands, then they return to the Kuban River through a cascade of hydroelectric power stations, 60-70 cubic meters are discharged into the reservoir, which under this regime is filled to a normal retaining level.

Features

• Throughput - 180 m³ of water per second.
• The irrigation area is 718 thousand hectares (about 9 percent of the territory of the region).
• On 36 thousand hectares of irrigated land, an increase in yield by 3 times.

Main Objects

• Distributor "Wide".
• The reservoir is large.
• Kursavsky hydroelectric power station .
• Barsuchkovsky hydroelectric power station .
• Distribution gateway near Bryk for discharge of water into the river. Calaus .

II

It began to be built during the ninth five-year plan, this is one of the most difficult sections, since 3 underground tunnels had to be built on it.

Features

• The length is 67 kilometers.
• Throughput - 65 m³ of water per second.
• The irrigation area is 275 thousand hectares.
• Irrigation area - 24 thousand hectares.

Main Objects

• the second phase of the Kalausky hydroelectric complex.
• Tunnel number 1.
• Tunnel number 2 (Krymgireevsky).
• Tunnel No. 3 (Sablinsky).
• distributor "Chernolesky"
• Distributor "Alexandrovsky".
• Distributor "Sablinsky".

III

Introduced in 1979. On stage III of BSK, there is a hydraulic tunnel and three metal sockets . The channel passes through the territory of the Alexander district. The inter-farm distribution channels Zhuravsky, Grushevsky and Oktyabrsky take water from the main canal, supplying water to the Aleksandrovsky, Novoselitsky, Blagodarnensky and Budennovsky districts.

Features

• 42.5 km long
• Water consumption 55 m³ / sec.
• Irrigation area - 15.5 thousand hectares.

Main Objects

• Sablinskoye reservoir - the work was mothballed at the stage of preparation of the construction site.
• Distributor "October"

Stage IV

The construction of the 4th section of BSK has been carried out since 1984. The main canal BSK-IV is a continuation of the 3rd section (BSK-III), which ends at 262.9 km, counting from the main structure. The cost of work is 363.5 million rubles (in 1991 prices).

The length of the BSK-IV main canal is 58 km, the length of group water pipelines is 148 km, the irrigation area of ​​the 4th section is 20.86 thousand ha, including increasing the water supply of existing irrigated land with an area of ​​15.2 thousand ha, water consumption - 50 m³ per second. The main channel has a trapezoidal section with a width of 3.5 m along the bottom, slopes 1: 3 and a building depth of 4 m. The bottom and slopes of the channel are covered with an anti-filtration lining, consisting of a loamy leveling layer 1 m thick, a polyethylene film protected by monolithic or precast concrete . Funds spent on construction should pay off under the project in 11 years.

Currently, work is underway on the construction of the Grushevsky reservoir (with a capacity of 60 million m³) for the intra-systemic regulation of runoff, water supply in the Blagodarnensky district, as well as a canal from 38 km to 57.2 km and up to and including discharge to Kambulat. The project provides for the construction of 14 drainage pipes, 8 aqueducts for the passage of stormwater, 9 bridges, including 1 railway, 3 blocking structures, 4 water intake locks, the Elizavetinsky distributor, 2 emergency discharges into the Kalaus river and into the Kambulat beam.

Start Water

On September 15, 2006, Minister of Agriculture Aleksey Gordeev took part in the inauguration of water along the 4th stage of the Great Stavropol Canal in the village of Rogataya Balka, Petrovsky District .

Features

The length is 57 km.

Main Objects

• Discharge into the galley Kambulat in the village of Gorny .
   

  BSK-IV. Dump into the galley Kambulat in the village of Gorny
• Orekhovsky Duker .
• Prosyansky dump.
• Grushevskoe reservoir was built only on 10-15% of the volume of water from the usable capacity.

Perspectives

The construction of the BSK-IV main canal and the implementation of design solutions for the watering of the Kambulat beam and the Aigurka river will increase the water supply of the Aleksandrovsky, Grachevsky Petrovsky, Ipatovsky, Apanasenkovsky, Turkmen, Arzgirsky and Blagodarnensky districts, introduce additional irrigated areas, supply water to the arid regions of the eastern Stav zone and create favorable conditions for the East Manych River.

V, VI turn

Due to the long gap in the construction of the BSK-IV line, as well as the lack of funding for already constructed structures, there are no prospects for the construction of the fifth line of BSK, as previously envisaged. However, on September 15, 2006, during the ceremonial start-up of water at BSK-IV, the Minister of Agriculture announced the possibility of government funding for the construction of the BSK-V line.

The territory of Ciscaucasia has long been inhabited by people. Sarmatian , Scythian culture lived on this territory, from which a lot of archaeological monuments remained. The territory on which the canal was built was also no exception, an archaeological expedition was urgently compiled in 50 to search for and extract monuments of these cultures. Subsequently, a large number of excavations of barrows were made in the territory of the Stavropol Territory. Students from Stavropol State University were actively involved in the excavation ^[1] .

• Sobisevich A.V., Shirokova V.A. The Grand Stavropol Canal - the irrigation and irrigation system of the North Caucasus // Grozny Natural Science Bulletin. 2018.Vol. 3. No. 1 (9). S. 81-89.

• Kumo Manych Canal
• Kursavsky hydroelectric power station