The lake faces serious environmental threats. Using more and more water from the rivers feeding the lake for industry and irrigation could lead to the same disaster as in case of Aral Sea. Extensive fishing led to extinction of many species and the production is still decreasing. Also impact of the metallurgy is critical and pollutes the lake especially by heavy metals that accumulate in fish and also human bodies.

Some of the main sources of pollution of lake Balkhash:

Metallurgy: blue water, blue crystals

Secrets of radiolocation station Daryal-U

Arsenal Tokrau: weapons that killed the environment