Water diplomacy: Kazakhstan to receive 11bln m³ from Central Asian countries

By April 2025, Kazakhstan will receive 11 billion cubic meters of water from the Central Asian countries, Kazinform News Agency quotes Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Nurzhan Nurzhigitov as saying at the 88th Interstate Commission for Water Coordination of Central Asia in Dushanbe.

Water diplomacy: Kazakhstan to receive 11bln m³ from Central Asian countries
Photo credit: gov.kz

Those attending the event were the heads of water agencies of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

The participants discussed the issues related to the irrigation interval in the basins of the Syrdarya and Amudarya rivers.

As the Kazakh Ministry reported, the abovementioned volume of water will be supplied to the Shardara Reservoir located in Turkistan region, along the Syrdarya River. Of this amount, 1.6 billion cubic meters will be delivered to the Aral Sea.

“This measure will let accumulate necessary volume of water for the irrigation period in 2025 and maintain southern regions’ ecosystem,” the Kazakh Minister said.

“The situation in southern regions differs from the situation in the west and north. There are no floods or flood water there in such volumes and scales. And in the summer, the demand in irrigation water is very high. Therefore, in the south we work quite in another way. Thanks to the negotiations, we managed to provide southern regions with water uninterruptedly. All issues related to water distribution and protection of transboundary water facilities are addressed together with our colleagues from Central Asia,” Nurzhigitov said.

Earlier, it was reported that Kazakhstan plans to digitize its water resources by the end of 2025.

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