Editing Irtysh (section)

==Economic use==
In Kazakhstan and Russia, [[Tanker (ship)|tanker]]s, passenger ships, and [[Cargo ship|cargo vessel]]s navigate the river during the ice-free season, between April and October. [[Omsk]], home to the headquarters of the state-owned Irtysh River Shipping Company, functions as the largest [[river port]] in Western Siberia.

On the Kazakhstan section of the river there are presently three major [[Hydroelectricity|hydroelectric]] plants, namely at [[Bukhtarma Hydroelectric Power Plant|Bukhtarma]], [[Ust-Kamenogorsk Hydroelectric Power Plant|Ust-Kamenogorsk]] and [[Shulbinsk Hydroelectric Power Plant|Shulbinsk]]. The world's deepest [[lock (water transport)|lock]], with a drop of {{convert|42|m|ft}}, allows river traffic to by-pass the [[dam]] at [[Ust-Kamenogorsk]].<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.waterwaysworld.com/latest.cgi?month=012008&start=20 | title=Waterways World: Latest | access-date=2010-02-07 | archive-date=2011-07-26 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726045506/http://www.waterwaysworld.com/latest.cgi?month=012008&start=20 }}</ref> Plans exist for the construction of several more dams.

[[File:Gorskii 04668u.jpg|thumb|left|Tobolsk river wharves in 1912]]
Three dams have been constructed on the Chinese section of the Irtysh as well:
the Keketuohai (可可托海) Dam ({{coord|47|10|51|N|89|42|35|E|display=inline|region:CN-62_type:landmark}}),
the Kalasuke (喀腊塑克) Dam ({{coord|47|08|14|N|88|53|15|E|display=inline|region:CN-62_type:landmark}}),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cdm.unfccc.int/UserManagement/FileStorage/GKM18VL6J904R2IFHPC7YXNTWA5UD3|title=Xinjiang Kalasuke 140MW Hydroelectric Project}}</ref><ref>[http://www.iwhr.com/cms/cms/infopub/infopre.jsp?pubtype=D&pubpath=zgskyww&infoid=1280908325577811&templetid=1280908325935210&channelcode=A10095404&userId=10002 考察调研组专家考察在建的喀腊塑克水利枢纽工程] (A group of experts visits the Kalasuke Dam), 2010-08-05</ref> and
the [[Project 635 Dam]]. There are also the [[Burqin Chonghu'er Dam]] and the [[Burqin Shankou Dam]] on the Irtysh's right tributary, the [[Burqin River]] and the [[Jilebulake Dam]] and [[Haba River Shankou Dam]] on another right tributary, the [[Haba River]].

The [[Northern river reversal]] proposals, widely discussed by the USSR planners and scientists in the 1960s and 1970s, would send some of the Irtysh's (and possibly Ob's) water to the water-deficient regions of central Kazakhstan and [[Uzbekistan]]. Some versions of this project would have seen the direction of flow of the Irtysh reversed in its section between the mouth of the [[Tobol]] (at [[Tobolsk]]) and the confluence of the Irtysh with the Ob at Khanty-Mansiysk, thus creating an "Anti-Irtysh".<ref>{{citation|journal=Soviet Geography|volume=21|issue=10|pages=638–644|year=1980|title=The possible environmental impact of the anti-Irtysh and problems of rational nature management
|doi=10.1080/00385417.1980.10640361
|first=V. A.|last=Skornyakova|first2=I. Ye.|last2=Timasheva
}}</ref>
While these gigantic [[interbasin transfer]] schemes were not implemented, a smaller [[Irtysh–Karaganda Canal]] was built between 1962 and 1974 to supply water to the dry Kazakh [[steppe]]s and to one of the country's main industrial center, [[Karaganda]]. In 2002, pipelines were constructed to supply water from the canal to the [[Ishim River|Ishim]] and Kazakhstan's capital, [[Astana]].

In China, a short canal was constructed in 1987 (water intake at {{coord|47|26|31|N|87|34|11|E|region:CN-62_type:landmark}}) to divert some of the Irtysh water to the [[Endorheic basin|endorheic]] [[Lake Ulungur]], whose level had been falling precipitously due to the increasing irrigation use of the lake's main affluent, the [[Ulungur River]].<ref name=fao1999>{{citation
|editor-first=T. |editor-last=Petr
|publisher=Food & Agriculture Org. |year=1999
|isbn=978-92-5-104309-7
|title=Fish and Fisheries at Higher Altitudes: Asia
|series=Issue 385 of FAO fisheries technical paper, ISSN 0429-9345
|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Z4HESCeJyZcC&pg=PA257
|page=257
}} (An English translation of the original paper published in the ''Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta'' in 1979).</ref> In the last years of the 20th century and the early 2000s, a much more major project, the [[Irtysh–Karamay–Urümqi Canal]] was completed. Increased water use in China has caused significant concerns among Kazakh and Russian environmentalists.<ref>[http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/civilsociety/articles/pp071606.shtml KAZAKHSTAN: ENVIRONMENTALISTS SAY CHINA MISUSING CROSS-BORDER RIVERS] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107011757/http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/civilsociety/articles/pp071606.shtml |date=2017-11-07 }}. By Gulnoza Saidazimova, 7/16/2006.</ref><ref name=sievers>{{citation|url=http://www.tilj.org/content/journal/37/num1/Sievers1.pdf|title=Transboundary Jurisdiction and Watercourse Law: China, Kazakhstan and the Irtysh|first=Eric W.|last=Sievers|journal=Texas International Law Journal|volume=37|issue=1|year=2002|access-date=2013-09-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921054754/http://www.tilj.org/content/journal/37/num1/Sievers1.pdf|archive-date=2013-09-21}}</ref>
According to a report published by Kazakhstan fishery researchers in 2013, the total Irtysh water use in China is about {{convert|3|km3|mi3|1}} per year; as a result, only about 2/3 of what would be the river's "natural" flow (6&nbsp;km<sup>3</sup> out of 9&nbsp;km<sup>3</sup>) reach the Kazakh border.<ref>{{citation
|url=http://www.group-global.org/lecture/view/2223
|title=Adapting of fisheries management to the changing Irtysh water basin hydrological regime
|last=Kulikov
|first=Evgeny Vyacheslavovich (Куликов Евгений Вячеславович)
|date=2013-08-23
|access-date=2013-09-21
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130925111250/http://www.group-global.org/lecture/view/2223
|archive-date=2013-09-25
}}</ref>