In the 1950s and early 1960s, large scale development of irrigated agriculture started in the upper and middle reaches of the Manas River (the Shihezi/Manas County region, the area where the river leaves the Tian Shan and enters the Zhungarian Basin). The Manas River Irrigation District had been fully in that area by 1962; the system was designed to use up to of water per year. As a result, little water flowed in the Manas River downstream of the district, and even less reached the Manas Lake, let alone the Alan Nur.