Water Diplomacy of Central Asia

Water shortage is becoming an increasingly pressing issue not only in Uzbekistan but throughout the world. Climate change, the current ecological crisis and situations beyond the control of nature increase the value of life-giving moisture and require conscious, targeted actions to conserve it. In this regard, states, the world community and authoritative international organizations are developing specific measures aimed at preserving the source of life. It is today that the necessary measures should be taken in order to achieve significant results tomorrow.

By 2030, the water shortage in Uzbekistan may reach 15 billion cubic meters. The bulk of water resources comes to us from neighboring states. Depending on the amount of annual precipitation, only 15-20 percent of water is formed on the territory of our country. Over the course of several years, the volume of water in large and small rivers and streams has been decreasing due to a decrease in precipitation in the region. This is easy to understand even from the fact that instead of the annual 60-64 billion cubic meters previously used in the republic, water supply has decreased to 51-53 billion cubic meters.
At the same time, in recent years, thanks to the wise and pragmatic policy of the head of our state, transboundary water resources between the countries of the region are managed on the basis of good neighborliness and respect for mutual interests. This makes it possible to easily solve long-standing problems that have accumulated in the area.
Active bilateral and multilateral fruitful cooperation in matters of integrated water resources management, joint use of transboundary waters and interstate facilities with neighboring countries continues consistently. In particular, a number of important meetings were held last year, and certain agreements were reached.
At meetings of the Interstate Coordination Water Management Commission (ICWC), the distribution of water intake limits for the growing season and autumn-winter periods in the Amu Darya and Syr Darya river basins, the use of transboundary water resources in the region, as well as current issues are discussed.
In 2024-2025, within the framework of meetings of bilateral joint working groups and commissions, Uzbekistan reached a number of important agreements with Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan on the rational use of transboundary water resources, as well as the operation of water management facilities and their automation. In June 2024, a trilateral protocol was signed between Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan to coordinate the operating mode of the Bahri Tojik reservoir and an additional billion cubic meters of water were received for the Tashkent, Syrdarya and Jizzakh regions during the growing season.
Cleaning and repair of the Great Gissar Canal on the border with Tajikistan in the Surkhandarya region will allow an average of 350 million cubic meters of water to be supplied annually. Thanks to the positive resolution of the issues considered within the framework of the Joint Uzbek-Turkmen Intergovernmental Commission on Water Management, more than five billion cubic meters of water have currently been accumulated in the Tuyamuyun Reservoir, which is 500 million cubic meters more than in previous years.
As a result of close ties with Kazakhstan, last year about 700 million cubic meters of water were discharged from the Shardara Reservoir to improve the environmental situation in the Aydar-Arnasay lake system, and in December 2024, in accordance with the agreements reached with the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation of Kazakhstan, 1.4 billion cubic meters were received from the Shardara Reservoir. In addition, the lake system receives 5.5-6 million cubic meters of water per day through collectors, which averages 3.5 billion cubic meters per year. In accordance with the Presidential Decree "On measures to improve the water resources management system and increase the efficiency of their use at the grassroots level" dated January 5, 2024, state institutions "Suv ​​etkazib berish khizmati" (Water Supply Service) have been created in the districts. In order to provide water to the land plots of dehkan and farming enterprises, a mechanism is being introduced for approving water intake limits for irrigation of crops by district Kengashes of People's Deputies, taking into account the water content of sources.
In addition, when introducing water-saving irrigation technologies and determining the volume of water intake for irrigation based on water measuring devices, a reduction factor of 0.5 is applied to the water tax rate; when introducing water-saving irrigation technologies or determining the volume of water intake for irrigation based on water measuring devices, a reduction factor of 0.7 is applied to the water tax rate; in the absence of implementation of water-saving irrigation technologies and failure to establish the volume of water intake for irrigation based on water-measuring devices, an increasing coefficient of 1.1 is applied to the water tax rate.
Based on this and taking into account the feasibility of implementing water-saving irrigation technologies and equipping water points