The West Kazakhstan region of the Republic of Kazakhstan occupies an area equal to
151,339 km(2). In the land structure, 69.7% of the area is occupied by agricultural
land. The region has great prospects for the development of the livestock industry.
However, uneven territorial availability of water resources is a limiting factor in
increasing the amount of livestock in the region. The purpose of the study is to monitor
underground water sources in the West Kazakhstan region of the Republic of Kazakhstan
to assess the zonality of their placement. The boundaries of natural and climatic
zones on the territory of the region were laid over the publicly available cartographic
materials on the hydrological data of the distribution of groundwater. The water source
monitoring was carried out by examining their actual condition in specific geographical
locations, including using remote sensing methods, with a further determination of
quantitative and qualitative parameters. The paper considers the state and problems
of water supply at the pastures in the natural and climatic zones of the West Kazakhstan
region. The region is characterized by the use of groundwater in the water supply
of pasture lands. Underground springs have a certain zonality in their location, manifest
themselves at different depths corresponding to different geological horizons, and
differ in a wide variation of water mineralization. In the dry steppe zone, it is
recommended to use the aquiferous mid-upper quaternary alluvial, aquiferous upper
Pliocene Akchagyl, and aquiferous upper cretaceous Maastricht horizons. The water
sources used have depths of up to 120 meters, and the mineralization varies from 0.2
to 9.1 g/dm(3). In the semi-desert zone, the upper-quaternary aquiferous marine Khvalynsky
and the lower-middle-quaternary aquiferous marine Baku-Khazar horizons are recommended.
The water sources used have depths of up to 90 meters, and the mineralization varies
from 0.2 to 11.8 g/dm(3). The semi-desert zone is characterized by the use of springs
with depths up to 80 meters. The mineralization of water in the permeable modern Aeolian
horizon is more often low (0.11-0.9 g/dm(3)) and rarely brackish (1.1-9.36 g/dm(3)).
