Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have agreed to put in meters in one another’s territory to watch water consumption and share knowledge on-line with one another.
Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Water Assets and Irrigation introduced the settlement on March 19, noting in a press launch that Kazakhstan will set up meters on Uzbek territory and Uzbekistan will set up meters on Kazakh territory. The assertion additionally stated that talks are underway over the place to put in the meters and likewise with worldwide organizations for help within the challenge.
Minister Nurzhan Nurzhigitov stated, “The set up of meters will make it potential to watch the volumes of water consumed by each international locations on-line. Already in April, we plan to start negotiations on the implementation of comparable initiatives with our different neighbors.”
Whereas water is commonly characterised as a possible spark for battle in Central Asia, it’s on the identical time a chance for cooperation.
In late February, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan inaugurated two flow-monitoring stations on transboundary canals – the Nice Fergana Canal and the Northern Fergana Canal – enabling real-time monitoring of water flows. The challenge was made potential by the Swiss authorities’s Blue Peace Central Asia Initiative, which it launched in 2017 to pursue a transboundary strategy to managing Central Asia’s water assets. As Blue Peace notes, nearly all of the area’s water assets are shared by two or extra international locations.
“Within the absence of dependable water measurement techniques,” Blue Peace famous in a challenge description, “it stays tough to handle transboundary water assets and monitor compliance with water withdrawal limits.”
Take the Syr Darya: Originating in two headstreams – one within the Tian Shan Mountains in Kyrgyzstan and the opposite in jap Uzbekistan – that meet within the Uzbek portion of the Fergana Valley, it flows greater than 2,200 kilometers west by way of the northern Tajik metropolis of Khujand after which throughout Uzbekistan and northwest into Kazakhstan the place it empties, ultimately, what little water is left into the North Aral Sea. Alongside the way in which, the river feeds the Toktogul reservoir in Kyrgyzstan, the Kayrakkum reservoir in Tajikistan, and the Shardara and Koksaray reservoirs in Kazakhstan – in addition to feeding the Fergana Valley’s vital agricultural trade.
Given Kazakhstan’s downstream place, efficient cooperation with upstream international locations is important. Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Water Assets and Irrigation famous in its press launch that “the settlement reached is vital within the pursuits of our nation, which geographically has much less entry to the sources of the rivers.”
In July 2023, Kazakh authorities introduced their intention to amend agreements – adopted in 1998 – with Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan on the usage of water and vitality assets alongside the Syr Darya. Beneath these agreements, extra electrical energy generated by Kyrgyzstan’s hydropower crops in summertime is transferred to the opposite two, in change for vitality assets (whether or not coal, gasoline, or different such provides) in winter. As illustrated by Kyrgyzstan’s declaration of a three-year vitality emergency on August 1, 2023, and worryingly low water ranges on the Toktogul reservoir as spring approaches, there are legitimate considerations that the prevailing system can’t maintain up within the face of local weather change and rising consumption.
In its July 2023 announcement, Kazakhstan additionally complained about pollution within the water flowing out of Uzbekistan, illustrating one other tough dynamic within the administration of shared water assets.
On the time, Kazakhstan expressed hopes to signal an settlement with the federal government of Uzbekistan on joint administration and use of transboundary water assets by December 2023. In late January 2024, Nurzhigitov, the Kazakh minister of water assets and irrigation, stated that Astana nonetheless deliberate to signal such an settlement with Uzbekistan, in addition to a separate settlement with China on transboundary rivers – however didn’t stipulate a timeline. The settlement on meter set up is however a sign of progress, as correct and shared knowledge about water flows can be important in figuring out the harder matter of allocation.
In a November 2023 report, the Eurasian Improvement Financial institution famous that the international locations of Central Asia “teeter on the point of being categorized as ‘insufficiently equipped’ with water assets…” The report went on to conclude, “Water use points require new mechanisms and instruments for cooperation in transboundary river basins, primarily rooted in deeper financial integration among the many area’s international locations.”