Kazakhstan and Tajikistan have reportedly reached an agreement on additional drawdown of the water from Tajikistan’s Bahri Tojik reservoir, which powers the Qairoqqum hydropower plant in the northern Sughd province, to Kazakhstan during the growing season.
The official website of Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources said on February 21 that Kazakh Deputy Minister of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources, Serik Kozhaniyazov, discussed this issue with Tajik Deputy Minister of Energy and Water Resources, Jamshed Shoimzoda, during his working visit to Dushanbe.
The parties reportedly discussed the emerging water management situation in the Syr Darya basin and carried out negotiations on the coordination of the operation mode of the Bahri Tojik reservoir during the inter-growing season 2021-2022 and the growing season 2022.
The Kazakh side reached an agreement that like the past year, an additional drawdown of the water from Tajikistan’s Bahri Tojik reservoir will be made this year that that will improve the provision of farmers of Turkestan and Kyzylorda oblasts with irrigation water under low water conditions, the Kazakh ministry notes.
In early June last year, Tajikistan agreed to divert 315 million cubic meters of water from its Bahri Tojik reservoir to Kazakhstan, and thereby, supplying its neighbor to the north with crucial irrigation water in the hot months of summer.
The deal was reportedly reached after a meeting in Dushanbe between Tajik Minister of Energy and Water Resources Daler Juma and Kazakhstan’s Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources Minister Magzum Mirzagaliyev.
The water was delivered to Kazakhstan’s Turkestan and Kyzylorda regions via Kyrgyzstan from June to August.
Kazakhstan, in turn, undertakes to provide Tajikistan with material and technical support in the event of negative consequences from the depletion of the Bahri Tojik reservoir.
According to the latest data, water resources of the transboundary rivers of Amy Darya and Syr Darya are distributed among the countries of the region as follows: Syr Darya flow: Uzbekistan – 50.55 percent; Kazakhstan – 42 percent; Tajikistan – 7.0 percent; and Kyrgyzstan – 0.5 percent; Amu Darya flow: Uzbekistan – 42.2 percent; Turkmenistan – 42.3 percent; Tajikistan – 15.2 percent; and Kyrgyzstan – 0.3 percent.
According to data from the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources of Tajikistan, the country actually uses only 17-20 percent of water resources that are formed in its territory.
Tajikistan consumes insignificant amounts of water resources for agricultural purposes, because 93 percent of Tajikistan is mountainous.
Tajikistan needs water mainly for generation of electric power. Hydropower plants’ reservoirs store water in spring-supper period in order to use it for generation of electricity during autumn-winter period.
These accumulations of water are made exclusively at the expense of the water withdrawal quota, which is annually determined by the Central Asian Interstate Commission for Water Coordination.
