ULAN-UDE, May 6. /TASS/. The water level in Lake Baikal has been going up to allay fears of the shrinking lake voiced when the water level in Baikal dropped to a critically low point of 455.87 meters. The Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring ( Rosgydromet) had expected the water level to drop to the lowest point in April, which actually happened. In May, the Baikal began to gain water, Rosgydromet said. In May, Baikal waters rose to 455.88 meters, a source from the Ministry of Natural Resources of Buryatia told TASS.
Deputy Director of the Baikal Institute of rational nature management Endon Garmayev said that the growing water level conforms to the norm. "The water level to a considerable extent depends on the average air temperatures which are growing in spring. The growing water level in the lake is an absolutely logical process which conforms to the norm studied for many years. There is nothing extraordinary in this process," Garmayev told TASS. "The snow coat in the water collecting zone was not high last winter. How fast the lake might gain water depends on the rainfall," Garmayev said.
Despite the encouraging prospects the Irkutsk region and Buryatia remain on "enhanced alert".