TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, October 21. Uzbekistan's agricultural sector used a total of 39 billion cubic meters of water all through the previous year, Trend reports.
The news followed a videoconference with representatives of all sectors of Uzbekistan’s economy, chaired by President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev.
Within this volume, approximately 36 percent, equivalent to 14 billion cubic meters, was wasted in unlined channels.
Additionally, an estimated 5 to 6 billion cubic meters were wasted as a result of Uzbekistan’s outdated irrigation techniques.
As per the president, large subsidies have been allocated for the water sector, including for the introduction of water-saving technologies over the past two years.
“As of today, more than 5,000 pumps are used to irrigate 2.5 million hectares of land and 7 billion kWh of electricity are spent per year. However, 80 percent of the pumps have been operating for 35-40 years and have exhausted their resource,” Mirziyoyev said.
As a result of the meeting, the heads of the country’s agricultural development were given instructions on concreting channels to reduce water losses, replacing pumps with energy-saving ones, as well as installing automated water metering devices at water facilities.
Meanwhile, German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) expressed its readiness to implement the regional program of Water resources management in Central Asia taking into account climate impacts.
The program, which involves Germany, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, is part of the Green Central Asia regional climate and security initiative of the German Federal Government.
The goal of the program is to introduce integrated water resources management at the regional level, taking into account climate impacts.
