Nowadays the water management measures are ineffective. The field trips of 2017-2018 are carried out. The Lower Volga is drained by 37 watercourses, 34 of them belong to small rivers. The right bank tributaries of the Volga are short and flow in deep channels - 76% of all tributaries of its lower reaches. Left bank waterways are long, flowing in shallow channels - 24%. This is due to the location of the right bank of the Volga within the Volga Upland with a developed ravine-net system and a zone of dry steppes. The left bank of the lower reaches of the Volga River lies in the semi-desert zone, where the ravine-gully network is poorly developed. Factors affecting the state of these rivers: the flow of wastewater from industrial enterprises; pollution by fertilizers, pesticides; flow regulation; irrevocable withdrawal of river runoff for household, industrial, agricultural needs. Measures to address these problems: the transition to modern water-saving technologies; cleaning of domestic, agricultural and industrial waste; toughening control over compliance with the norms of discharge of pollutants into rivers; the establishment of water protection and sanitary zones for all reservoirs; clearing channels, coasts and floodplains from debris; tight control over livestock grazing in floodplains; planting forest belts along the river channels.

The research considers the water bodies of the Volga-Akhtuba floodplain requiring an optimal hydrological regime, aimed at preserving floodplain oak groves, soil fertility, spawning sites and at the development of the territory agricultural potential. New solutions are presented, aimed at complex approach to floodplain territory rehabilitation, at minimization of floodplain degradation and at its restoration, instead of traditional hydro-mechanized work on cleaning tracts, eriks and lakes of the floodplain. A phased restoration of the floodplain natural state and creation of balanced ecosystem with an operating self-purification mechanism are planned as a result of the proposed measures being implemented. These measures enable to increase the acreage of irrigated lands for vegetable crops by accumulating spring flood waters in the water bodies of Volga-Akhtuba floodplain.

The article presents new modern ways to increase the receiving capacity and preserve the water content of lake basins on the territory of the Volga-Akhtuba floodplain natural Park. The main factor that caused the need for rehabilitation of the rivers and lakes of the Volga-Akhtuba floodplain is the change in the hydrological and ecological situation that arose as a result of the change in the hydrological regime by regulating the flow of the Volga River after the construction of the Volga hydroelectric power station. The rehabilitation of water objects is aimed at preserving and restoring the water objects to a state that provides environmentally favorable living conditions for the population; ensuring the protection of the population from low water (water scarcity), for the restoration and environmental rehabilitation of the water objects and the adjacent territory.