Water-resource deficits have led to the need for artificial groundwater-recharge techniques to provide drinking water for rural communities in southeastern Kazakhstan, especially those with a small number of inhabitants. The Kishi-Tobe settlement located in the Karatal agricultural area on the right bank of the Karatal River in southeastern Kazakhstan has severe water-supply shortages. In this study, the groundwater-flow model MODFLOW was used to simulate complex hydrogeological and irrigation conditions for a quantitative assessment of artificial groundwater recharge from infiltration pools. The aim of these pools was to solve the water shortage in the Kishi-Tobe settlement. New findings showed that the maximum rate of artificial groundwater recharge from the infiltration pool can reach 1000 m 3 day −1 , corresponding to an infiltration rate of 0.2 m day −1 , which creates a groundwater mound with a radius of around 500 m from the center of the pool. The groundwater mound also serves as a hydrodynamic barrier, preventing inflow of contaminated groundwater from irrigated fields and rice checks to the pumping wells. The potential rate of groundwater pumping from two water-supply wells can reach up to 7350 m 3 day −1 over 10 years, providing a maximum drawdown in the wells of about 24 m. The water required by the Kishi-Tobe settlement can be supplied at a rate of 864 m 3 day −1 , achieving both available drawdowns by the end of the forecast period and balanced provision of the groundwater resource.

Ongoing water-resource depletion is a common trend in southeastern Kazakhstan and in most of Central Asia, making the use of drainage water for freshwater preservation and groundwater recharge a key strategy for sustainable agriculture. Since the Ily River inflow began to decrease, groundwater levels in the Shengeldy study area site have fallen below the drainage pipes. As such, our main research hypothesis was that owing to drainage infiltration, the regional shallow aquifer can be used as an effective additional water source for moistening crop root systems during the irrigation period. The MODFLOW groundwater flow model was used to simulate and quantitatively assess the combined hydrogeological and irrigation conditions of artificial groundwater recharge both from the subsurface drainage and as an additional source for irrigation. The field study showed that the additional groundwater table elevation will reach approximately 1.5 m under the field drainage system and that the additional groundwater recharge influence zone will develop up to 300–350 m from the drains. The MODFLOW simulation together with full-scale experimental studies suggests that under certain conditions drainage water can be applied both as an additional source of irrigation and for aquifer sustainable maintenance.

As in many regions across the world, southeastern Kazakhstan is subjected to ongoing water-resource depletion. The livestock sector is already a major natural water resource consumer, with groundwater use becoming its water supply strategy. Remote pasture infrastructure development requires new water resources to allow pasture area circulation. The distant pastures in the middle reach of the Aksu River consist of three pastures, with a total area of 32,450 ha and a permissible number of 3245 livestock heads. The HYDRUS-1D water transport model and MODFLOW groundwater-flow model simulated complex water infrastructure prospect hydrogeological scenarios to allow the consumption of 302.4 m3 per day for livestock keeping on pasturelands. During pumping for livestock watering, projected production well drawdowns were quantitatively evaluated. The findings show that the projected pumping flow rate equals 288 m3/day during the water consumption season and 95 m3/day outside the water consumption season. While the production wells on pastures No. 2 and No. 3 can be considered reliable, on pasture No. 1, an additional production well is needed. To maintain the production wells’ drawdowns to less than 6 m, a projected pumping flow rate reduction to 216 m3/day and 70 m3/day, respectively, is required.

The challenge of a good quality drinking water supply to southeastern Kazakhstan’s local population from far-away natural surface water sources motivates groundwater utilization from local aquifers. To prevent groundwater resource deficits, artificial groundwater recharge is needed. To this end, infiltration and clogging processes were evaluated through comprehensive field research in southeastern Kazakhstan’s typical river drainage basin (Aksu experimental site). The infiltration scenario included constructed mini pools and their typical soil profile clogging and silting processes. The local aquifer unsaturated and upper saturated zones underwent a detailed study of water balance, hydrodynamic setting, and filtration properties. The research results suggest that the infiltration rate decreased from 15 m/day until the saturation steady state and remained at 0.75 m/day until the end of the experiment. In summer, clogging layers with thicknesses ranging from 3 mm for the clayey silt layer to 6 mm for muddy clay began to form at the mini pools nearly one month after the test began. During infiltration, the mini pools’ upper soil layer dirt-holding capacity varied from 3.72 to 5.25 kg/m2. The field study results serve as a factual basis for artificial replenishment system design and groundwater replenishment methodology optimization in southeastern Kazakhstan and similar regions.