Most Russians are familiar with the Amur River only from the old song: “On the high banks of the Amur, watchmaking Motherland stands!” And even that is mainly people of the older generation. At best, young people heard that somewhere there, far away, either in Siberia, or it is not clear where, there seems to be such a river. Meanwhile, the Amur River is one of the largest waterways not only in Russia, but also in the world.
The area of the Amur basin, for example, is 1855 thousand square kilometers. This is the fourth place in Russia and the tenth in the world. Fifty-four percent of the basin is located in Russia. Many other rivers, whose names are much more "untwisted", have a much smaller catchment area. The length of the river is almost three thousand kilometers. The greatest width is five kilometers and the depth is fifty-six meters!
The power sources of the Amur River are filled with water mainly during monsoon rains. Meltwater in the Amur balance is only twenty-five percent of the runoff. Due to the peculiarities of hydrobalance, the Amur River has two maximums - summer and autumn. During the summer, the river rises three to four meters, and in the fall much more - up to fifteen meters. At this time, the Amur River can spread in breadth up to twenty kilometers!
Cupid is a habitat for valuable commercial fish. A large number of fish are found here, both salmon species - pink salmon, chum salmon, and sturgeon - Kaluga and sea sturgeon. Moreover, fish is not just a lot, but a lot, like in any Far Eastern or northern river.
But in recent years, a problem has arisen that can significantly reduce the number of fish, and cause considerable harm to humans. This is a violation of the ecological balance in the Amur basin. The environmental problems of the Amur River have already become the cause of close attention to it by ecologists of three countries located in its basin - Russia, China and Mongolia.
The problem became especially acute in the nineties, when, for obvious reasons, environmental control in Russia controlled almost nothing, and China, which was booming, was not up to the problems of the northern river. But common sense, fortunately, still prevailed. If in the late nineties even the meat of the Amur fish, due to the high content of harmful substances, had a peculiar “pharmacy” smell, then after six to seven years the situation improved. And although Chinese industry is still developing rapidly, the discharge of harmful substances into the river has stopped. Now environmentalists are more concerned about the activities of agricultural enterprises of our southern neighbor.
The Chinese, in the pursuit of productivity, use a large number of chemicals, including those that are prohibited for import and use on the territory of Russia. In spring and flood waters, fertilizers are washed off from the fields in Amur. But the river is common!
Despite some improvement, the Amur River continues to be a headache for ecologists and residents of the Far Eastern region. Everyone remembers the case when, in 2005, due to an accident at a Chinese chemical plant, a large amount of nitrobenzene and nitrobenzene was washed into the river. A giant poisonous spot moved down the Sungari River - one of the tributaries of the Amur. A few days later, the spot reached the Amur, and a month later - Khabarovsk. And in the summer of 2008, local residents discovered an oil spill on the Amur . It was not possible to establish its origin.