Nurzhan textile plant cuts shifts as water runs short

NURZHAN — Zhetysu Industrial Textiles, the Nurzhan wool and textile combine, has cut shifts at its scouring and dyeing sections after the Chu Valley Irrigation Inspectorate reduced its summer water quota, the company said yesterday.

Scouring raw wool and dyeing yarn use large amounts of water, which the plant draws from the lower Chu basin. The company said reduced shifts would continue for several weeks, until the quota is restored or the river rises. Weaving and felt workshops are less affected. The plant employs about 1,100 people, most of them women.

It is the second time in three summers that the plant has had to cut back. It did the same in 2021, when quotas were reduced during the drought of that year. The company has asked for permission to drill its own wells, saying this would protect production in dry summers. The authorities have not approved the request. The company says its scouring lines already recycle most of their water.

The inspectorate said this summer's quotas had been set for all large users of the lower Chu according to the water available, and that no user had been treated differently. Workers leaving the morning shift yesterday said they had been told that wages for the lost hours would be partly paid. "We have been through this before," one weaver said. "We wait for the river."