Water Resources

In terms of natural and artificial water bodies, water and hydropower resources, the Perm region ranks the first in the Urals. According to the official data, the Perm region's water resources inventory includes circa 29 thousand rivers over 90 thousand kilometers long in total (the length of all railroads in Russia), circa 800 lakes with a total area of over 120 square kilometers, almost 1000 swamps that, including fen forests, occupy over 25 thousand square kilometers, different types of underground waters such as 2 perennial firn basins in the northeast of the region in the Tulym Ridge, cave ice in over 10 solutional caves, three reservoirs with an area over 3 thousand square kilometers, circa 500 ponds and 2 ancient interbasin channels: the Northern Ekaterininskiy between Dzhurich and Northern Keltma and Prokop between Cheptsa in the Vyatka basin and Kulichikha in the Ochera basin.

Kama is undoubtedly the main river of the Perm region and the whole western Urals. 

Kama river	Zhigalanskie Falls

Kama is generally known as the largest tributary stream of Volga, another great river of Russia.

Still, the matter viewed from a purely scientific standpoint, Kama is the trunk river and Volga is its tributary stream. Therefore, it is Kama and not Volga that falls into the Caspian Sea. Still, given the most significant historical factor, the uniting part that Volga played in the creation of the unified Russian state, it is it and not Kama that is considered the main river of Russia. The Perm region boasts all kinds of rivers from typical mountain rivers with rapid current and rapids starting in the Ural Mountains to quieter plain rivers. Still, both types of rivers have one thing in common: all rivers in the Perm region are extremely picturesque and most of them are suitable for active recreation such as rafting or fishing.

Yusva river	Vishera river

Lakes are poetically called «blue orbs of the planet». The Perm region boasts all kinds of lakes: deep and shallow, small and average, open and terminal, above- and below-ground, floodplain, solution, tectonic, natural and artificial, sweet- and salt-water, dead, entirely lifeless, rich in fish, with beautiful names and entirely nameless ones.

The biggest lakes are in the north of the Perm region. They are:

•  Chusovskoe (19.4 sq. km) 
•   Bolshoi Kumikush (17.8 sq. km)  
•  Novozhilovo (7.12 sq. km)

The saltiest lake of all surface ones is the Igum Lake (25.6 g/l) in the Solikamsk District. One of the largest underground lakes nowadays is the lake in the Peoples’ Friendship Grotto of the Kungur Ice Cave (circa 1300 sq. km). Totally, over 60 lakes have been discovered in the cave. Other solution caves are also known for their underground lakes. They are Pashiyskaya, Divya, Kizelovskaya and Ordinskaya caves. 

The deepest lakes (all the solution ones): 

•  Rogalek (61 m deep) 
•  Beloe (61 m deep) 
•  Bolshoe in Dobrianskiy District (30 m deep)

Some lakes of Perm region are protected by the state. The state nature reserve at the Chusovskoye Lake was created specifically for the purposes of protecting multitudinous flocks of migratory birds. The nature reserve at the Adovo Lake was created to protect nesting sites of the whooping swan that is rare in the region.

Perm Region territory also accommodates water bodies larger than lakes and ponds. They are reservoirs created in connection with construction of hydropower plants. They are Kama and Votkinsk Reservoirs on the Kama River and Shirokovo Reservoir on the Kosva River. Local residents frequently call the Kama Reservoir as the Kama Sea thus paying homage to its size and significance.