On the territory of Almaty Region, thanks to The Bartogay reservoir, the Shelek (Chilik) river was formed. In the early 80-ies of the XX century, it was blocked by a 60 – meter high stone-embankment dam with a length of 330 m.this is how the bartogay reservoir was formed. The waters of the reservoir feed the Big Almaty canal, which stretches to the city of Almaty, irrigating the foothill agricultural zone on its way.