Lake Baikal, the world’s largest freshwater lake is under threat. It lies around 9,200 kilometres east of Moscow and holds about one fifth of the world’s freshwater.<br /><br /> Illegal logging, construction and mineral mining are among the threats which some blame for the fact the water level in the lake has reached its lowest in 60 years.<br /><br /> “We see a phenomenon here that the lowering of the water level compared to this time last year is connected to a natural factor – less water entering Baikal which scientists did not expect.<br /><br /> ‘The fact that more water was pumped through the Irkutsk hydroelectric power station led them to expect a high level of water in the lake,” explained environmentalist Marina Rikhvanova.<br /><br /> The lake’s water level dropped by 40 centimetres compared to 2013 falling to 456.09 metres and that’s just nine centimetres over the minimum admissible level set by the Russian government.<br /><br /> Environmentalists say that extremely hot and dry summers and felling forests around the lake c
