The paper is devoted to monitoring the environmental coliform bacteria (CB) contamination (soil and water) in the environmental disaster areas in the Kazakhstan part of the Aral Sea Region and ranking districts by their level of contamination and the rate of gastrointestinal infections (GI). The research was done in environmental disaster areas (Aral District, Kazaly District) and environmental crisis areas (Karmakshy District, Zhalagash District, and Shieli District) in the Kyzylorda Region. The areas were ranked in terms of CB contamination level and GI rate in descending order. The bacterial composition in the gathered water samples showed that the greatest number of contaminated samples was found in the Aral District and an insignificantly smaller number of contaminated water samples were found in the Shieli District. A combination of various microorganisms (by two or three species) was found in most studied samples of soil and water, while the total microbial count ranged from 2.1 to 6.7. The obtained results show that the rankings of areas by E.coli contamination and GI rate coincided or were very close, but weakly correlated with the severity of the environmental disaster.

Abdullaev, I., & Rakhmatullaev, S. (2013). Transformation of water management in Central Asia: from State-centric, hydraulic mission to socio-political control. Environmental Earth Sciences, 73(2), 849–861.

Anaedi, O. (2002). The Aral Sea. Problems and Solutions. Ecology and Sustainable Development, 7, 13–19.

Anuraj, A., Tiwari, V. K., Babu, P. P., Sreekanth, G. B., & Srinivas R, P. (2015). Portals of Entry for Gram-Negative Bacteria in a Freshwater Prawn Hatchery. Journal of Applied Aquaculture, 27(2), 150–159.

Arora, S., Rajpal, A., Kumar, T., Bhargava, R., & Kazmi, A. A. (2014). Pathogen removal during wastewater treatment by vermifiltration. Environmental Technology, 35(19), 2493–2499.

Bain, R., Cronk, R., Wright, J., Yang, H., Slaymaker, T., & Bartram, J. (2014). Fecal Contamination of Drinking-Water in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. PLoS Medicine, 11(5), 74-85.

Batabyal, A. K. & Chakraborty, S. (2015). Hydrogeochemistry and water quality index in the assessment of groundwater quality for drinking uses. Water Environment Research, 87(7), 607–617.

Bekchanov, M., Ringler, C., Bhaduri, A. & Lanka, S. (2015). A Water Rights Trading Approach to Increasing Inflows to the Aral Sea. Direct access: http://doi.org/10.1002/ldr.2394

Bernauer, T., & Siegfried, T. (2012). Climate change and international water conflict in Central Asia. Journal of Peace Research, 49(1), 227–239.

Bobiniene, R., Miškiniene, M., Gudavičiute, D. & Mackiewicz, Z. (2014). Health indicators of the poultry drinking water treated with electromagnetic vibrations. Veterinarija Ir Zootechnika, 67(89), 10–15.

Brenchley, J. M. & Douek, D. C. (2012). Microbial Translocation Across the GI Tract. Annual Review of Immunology, 30(1), 149–173.

Cablk, M. E., Szelagowski, E. E. & Sagebiel, J. C. (2012). Characterization of the volatile organic compounds present in the headspace of decomposing animal remains, and compared with human remains. Forensic Science International, 220(3), 118-125.

Canton, R., Akova, M., Carmeli, Y., Giske, C. G., Glupczynski, Y., Gniadkowski, M. & Cornaglia, G. (2012). Rapid evolution and spread of carbapenemases among Enterobacteriaceae in Europe. Clinical Microbiology and Infection, 18(5), 413–431.

Charkowski, A., Blanco, C., Condemine, G., Expert, D., Franza, T., Hayes, C. & Yedidia, I. (2012). The role of secretion systems and small molecules in soft-rot Enterobacteriaceae pathogenicity. Annual Review of Phytopathology, 50, 425–49.

Crous, P. W., Wingfield, M. J., Guarro, J., Cheewangkoon, R., van der Bank, M., Swart, W. J & Groenewald, J. Z. (2013). Fungal planet description sheets. Persoonia - Molecular Phylogeny and Evolution of Fungi, 31, 188–296.

Dang, H., & Lovell, C. R. (2016). Microbial surface colonization and biofilm development in marine environments. American Society for Microbiology, 14(1), 114-125.

Dzhumagaliyeva, A. B., Orakbay, L. Zh., Omarova M. N., & Shuratov, I. Kh. (2015). Analysis of Epidemiological Parameters of Hepatitis A in Several Regions of Kazakhstan. Modern Problems of Science and Education, 1(1), 153-164.

Edberg, S. C., Rice, E. W., Karlin, R. J., & Allen, M. J. (2000). Escherichia coli. Journal of Applied Microbiology, 88(1), 77-89.

Escher, B. I., Allinson, M., Altenburger, R., Bain, P. A., Balaguer, P., Busch, W., Leusch, F. D. (2014). Benchmarking organic micropollutants in wastewater, recycled water and drinking water with in vitro bioassays. Environmental Science & Tecnology, 48(3), 1940–1956.

Fester, T., Giebler, J., Wick, L. Y., Schlosser, D., & Kästner, M. (2014). Plant-microbe interactions as drivers of ecosystem functions relevant for the biodegradation of organic contaminants. Elsevier Ltd, 18(3), 188-195.  

Glaser, K., Kuppardt, A., Boenigk, J., Harms, H., Fetzer, I., & Chatzinotas, A. (2015). The influence of environmental factors on protistan microorganisms in grassland soils along a land-use gradient. Science of The Total Environment, 537, 33–42.

Guarino, A., Ashkenazi, S., Gendrel, D., Vecchio, A. Lo, Shamir, R., & Szajewska, H. (2014). European Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition/European Society for Pediatric Infectious Diseases Evidence-Based Guidelines for the Management of Acute Gastroenteritis in Children in Europe. Jpgn, 59(1), 132–152.

Guarner, F., Khan, A. G., Garisch, J., Eliakim, R., Gangl, A., Thomson, A. & Kim, N. (2012). World gastroenterology organisation global guidelines. Probiotics and Prebiotics,  11(11), 26-38.

Harwood, V. J., Staley, C., Badgley, B. D., Borges, K., & Korajkic, A. (2014). Microbial source tracking markers for detection of fecal contamination in environmental waters. FEMS Microbiology Reviews, 38(1), 1–40:

Heaney, C. D., Sams, E., Dufour, A. P., Brenner, K. P., Haugland, R. A., Chern, E. & Wade, T. J. (2012). Fecal indicators in sand, sand contact, and risk of enteric illness among beachgoers. Epidemiology, 23(1), 95–106.

Indoitu, R., Kozhoridze, G., Batyrbaeva, M., Vitkovskaya, I., Orlovsky, N., Blumberg, D., & Orlovsky, L. (2015). Dust emission and environmental changes in the dried bottom of the Aral Sea. Aeolian Research, 17, 101–115.

Jacob, J. T., Klein, E., Laxminarayan, R., Beldavs, Z., Lynfield, R., & Alexander, J. (2013). Vital Signs. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 62(9), 1–9.

Jiang, L., Zheng, X., & Chen, L. (2012). Microbe distribution and dynamic characters of oil degradation in the contaminated soils. Life Cycle Assess, 134, 763–770.

Kounina, A., Margni, M., Bayart, J.B., Boulay, A.M., Berger, M., Bulle, C. & Humbert, S. (2013). Review of methods addressing freshwater use in life cycle inventory and impact assessment. Life Cycle Assess, 18(3), 707–721.

Lozupone, C. A., Stombaugh, J. I., Gordon, J. I., Jansson, J. K., & Knight, R. (2012). Diversity, stability and resilience of the human gut microbiota. Nature, 489(7415), 220-230.

Mc. Mahon, K. D. & Read, E. K. (2013). Microbial contributions to phosphorus cycling in eutrophic lakes and wastewater. Annual Review of Microbiology, 67, 199–219.

Monteagudo-Mera, A., Rodríguez-Aparicio, L., Rúa, J., Martínez-Blanco, H., Navasa, N., García-Armesto, M.R., & Ferrero, M. (2012). In vitro evaluation of physiological probiotic properties of different lactic acid bacteria strains of dairy and human origin. Journal of Functional Foods, 4(2), 531–541.

Norman, S. A., Hobbs, R. C., Wuertz, S., Melli, A., Beckett, L. A., Chouicha, N. & Miller, W. A. (2013). Fecal pathogen pollution: Sources and patterns in water and sediment samples from the upper Cook Inlet, Alaska ecosystem. Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts, 15(5), 1041–1051.

Omarova, M. N., Shuratov, I. Kh., Abdikadirov, T. A., Dzhumagaliyeva, A. B., Abildayeva, G. A., & Sugurova, G. A. (2015). Analysis of Epidemiological Parameters of Hepatitis A in the Kyzylorda Region for 2004-2013. Modern Problems of Science and Education, 4. 53-66.

Patel, D., Shrivastava, P. K. & Patel, D. P. (2014). Economical solution to remove microbes from harvested roof water. Ecology, Environment and Conservation, 20, 143–148.

Prendergast, A., & Kelly, P. (2012). Review: Enteropathies in the developing world: Neglected effects on global health. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 86(5), 756–763.

Prüss-Ustün, A., Bartram, J., Clasen, T., Colford, J. M., Cumming, O., Curtis, V. & Cairncross, S. (2014). Burden of disease from inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene in low- and middle-income settings. Tropical Medicine & International Health, 19(8), 894–905.

Ragab, R., & Prudhomme, C. (2002). Climate change and water resources management in arid and semi-arid regions: Prospective and challenges for the 21st century. Biosystems Engineering, 81(1), 3–34.

Sharma, D., Saharan, B. S., Chauhan, N., Bansal, A., & Procha, S. (2014). Production and structural characterization of Lactobacillus helveticus derived biosurfactant. The Scientific World Journal, 20, 352-364.

Shen, A. (2012). Clostridium difficile toxins: Mediators of inflammation. Journal of Innate Immunity, 4(2), 149–158.

Smyth, A. R., Bell, S. C., Bojcin, S., Bryon, M., Duff, A., Flume, P. & Wolfe, S. (2014). European cystic fibrosis society standards of care: Best practice guidelines. Journal of Cystic Fibrosis, 13(1), 23–42.

Sokolov, M. S., Sokolov, D. M., Tymchuk, S. N., & Larin, V. Ye. (2014). The Methodology and Indicators of Sanitary and Microbiological Monitoring of Soil Safety. Biosphere, 6(2), 158–169.

Strunz, E. C., Addiss, D. G., Stocks, M. E., Ogden, S., Utzinger, J., & Freeman, M. C. (2014). Water, Sanitation, Hygiene, and Soil-Transmitted Helminth Infection. A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. PLOS: Medicine, 11(3), 253-261.  

Temmerman, S., Meire, P., Bouma, T. J., Herman, P. M. J., Ysebaert, T., & De Vriend, H. J. (2013). Ecosystem-based coastal defence in the face of global change. Elsevier: Coastal Disasters and Climate in Vietnam, 17(1), 153-162.

Wang, H., Masters, S., Edwards, M. A., Falkinham, J. O., & Pruden, A. (2014). Effect of disinfectant, water age, and pipe materials on bacterial and eukaryotic community structure in drinking water biofilm. Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts, 48(3), 1426–1435.

White, K. D. (2013). Nature-society linkages in the Aral Sea region. Journal of Eurasian Studies, 4(1), 18–33.