Editing Ob (section)

==Human use==
[[Image:Barnaul River Port.jpg|thumb|The Ob River in [[Barnaul]]]]
[[Image:Ob river.jpg|thumb|A section of the Ob River]]

The Ob provides irrigation, drinking water, hydroelectric energy, and fishing (the river hosts more than 50 species of fish).
There are several hydroelectric power plants along the Ob river, the largest being Novosibirskaya GES.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.google.ro/maps/place/Novosibirskaya+GES/@54.8503211,82.9841331,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x42dfdc9c0694c19b:0xafb61636924d1eec!8m2!3d54.8503211!4d82.9863218|title=Location of Novosibirskaya GES|publisher=Google Maps|access-date=1 July 2017|archive-date=9 September 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220909215834/https://www.google.ro/maps/place/Novosibirskaya+GES/@54.8503211,82.9841331,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x42dfdc9c0694c19b:0xafb61636924d1eec!8m2!3d54.8503211!4d82.9863218?shorturl=1|url-status=live}}</ref>

The navigable waters within the Ob basin reach a total length of {{convert|15000|km|abbr=on}}.<ref name="EB1911"/>
The importance of navigation in the Ob basin for transport was particularly great before the completion of the [[Trans-Siberian Railway]], since, despite the general south-to-north direction of the flow of Ob and most of its tributaries, the width of the Ob basin provided for (somewhat indirect) transport in the east–west direction as well.

===History===
The [[Novgorod Republic|Novgorodians]] were aware of the lands of western Siberia from at least the 11th century, which were designated by the Russian word ''[[Yugra]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rasputin |first1=Valentin |title=Siberia, Siberia |date=29 October 1997 |publisher=Northwestern University Press |isbn=978-0-8101-1575-0 |page=36 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fzchffZ3BFQC |language=en}}</ref> Novgorod established two trade routes to the Ob River, both starting from the town of [[Veliky Ustyug|Ustyug]].<ref name="Naumov"/> The first route went along the [[Sukhona]] and [[Vychegda]], then along the [[Usa (Pechora)|Usa]] to the lower reaches of the Ob.<ref name="Naumov"/> The second route went down the [[Northern Dvina]], then along the coasts of the [[White Sea]] and [[Kara Sea]], before reaching the mouth of the Ob.<ref name="Naumov">{{cite book |last1=Naumov |first1=Igor V. |title=The History of Siberia |date=22 November 2006 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-20703-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4498YjPq6mgC |language=en |page=53}}</ref>

The Russian settlements of [[Beryozovo, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug|Beryozov]] and [[Obdorsk]] were founded towards the end of the 16th century on the lower reaches of the Ob, while [[Surgut]] was founded on the middle course of the Ob.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kerner |first1=Robert Joseph |title=The Urge to the Sea: The Course of Russian History: The Role of Rivers, Portages, Ostrogs, Monasteries, and Furs |date=15 November 2023 |publisher=Univ of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-35030-4 |page=72 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j5ngEAAAQBAJ |language=en}}</ref>

Until the early 20th century, a particularly important western river-port was
[[Tyumen]], located on the [[Tura (river)|Tura]], a tributary of the [[Tobol]]. Reached by an extension of the [[Yekaterinburg]]–[[Perm, Russia|Perm]] railway in 1885, and thus obtaining a rail link to the [[Kama (river)|Kama]] and [[Volga]] rivers in the heart of Russia, Tyumen became an important railhead for some years until the railway extended further east. In the eastern reaches of the Ob basin, [[Tomsk]] on the [[Tom (river)|Tom]] functioned as an important terminus.

Tyumen had its first [[steamboat]] in 1836, and steamboats have navigated the middle reaches of the Ob since 1845. In 1916, there were 49 steamers on the Ob; 10 on the Yenisei.

In an attempt to extend the Ob navigable system even further, a [[Ob–Yenisei Canal|system of canals]], utilising the [[Ket (river)|Ket]], {{convert|900|km|abbr=on}} long in all, was built in the late 19th-century to connect the Ob with the [[Yenisei River|Yenisei]], but soon abandoned as being uncompetitive with the [[Trans-Siberian Railway|railway]].

The Trans-Siberian Railway, once completed, provided for more direct, year-round transport in the east–west direction. But the Ob river-system still remained important for connecting the huge expanses of [[Tyumen Oblast]] and [[Tomsk Oblast]] with the major cities along the Trans-Siberian route, such as Novosibirsk or [[Omsk]]. In the second half of the 20th century, construction of rail links to [[Labytnangi]], [[Tobolsk]], and the oil and gas cities of [[Surgut]], and [[Nizhnevartovsk]] provided more railheads, but did not diminish the importance of the waterways for reaching places still not served by the rail.

A dam built near Novosibirsk in 1956 created the then-largest artificial lake in [[Siberia]], called [[Novosibirsk Reservoir]].
From the 1960s through 1980s, Soviet engineers and administrators contemplated a gigantic project to [[Northern river reversal|divert some of the waters of Ob and Irtysh]] to [[Kazakhstan]] and the Soviet [[Central Asia]]n republics, replenishing the [[Aral Sea]] as well. The project never left the drawing board, abandoned in 1986 for economic and environmental considerations.<ref>Douglas R. Weiner, [https://books.google.com/books?id=2rRjx4pCEx0C "A Little Corner of Freedom: Russian Nature Protection from Stalin to Gorbachev"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170109140042/https://books.google.com/books?id=2rRjx4pCEx0C |date=2017-01-09 }}. University of California Press, 1999. {{ISBN|0-520-23213-5}}. p. 415</ref><ref>Michael H. Glantz, [https://books.google.com/books?id=2YXnBxZg7c4C "Creeping Environmental Problems and Sustainable Development in the Aral Sea..."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170109101345/https://books.google.com/books?id=2YXnBxZg7c4C |date=2017-01-09 }}. {{ISBN|0-521-62086-4}}. p. 174</ref>