TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, October 23. Uzbekistan has allocated 22 trillion Uzbek soums ($1.8 billion) from the state budget for the upgrade of the water management system from 2021 through 2023, Trend reports.
As per Uzbekistan’s Minister of Water Resources Shavkat Khamrayev, it is planned to allocate another 1.7 trillion soums ($139.2 billion) and additional loans in the amount of $300 million from international financial organizations for the improvement of water management systems in 2024.
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 Uzbekistan as well, 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.
The problem of water management remains one of the prioritized for the government in Uzbekistan. At a recent government meeting, it was noted that Uzbekistan's agricultural sector used a total of 39 billion cubic meters of water all through the previous year. Within this volume, approximately 36 percent, equivalent to 14 billion cubic meters, was wasted.
Additionally, an estimated 5 to 6 billion cubic meters were wasted as a result of Uzbekistan’s outdated irrigation techniques.
The government allocated big subsidies for the water sector in the past two years, and the work in this direction continues. President of Uzbekistan himself said recently that 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of electricity are spent per year, however, 80 percent of the pumps have been operating for 35-40 years and are well outdated.