June 17 is a day of global observance of the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought. The theme of 2022 Desertification and Drought Day is “Rising up from Drought Together.”
The United Nations General Assembly declared 17 June to be "World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought" by its resolution A/RES/49/115 adopted in December 1994.
According to data from the Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia (CAREC), drought threatens more than 2 million hectares of lands in Tajikistan, more than 5 million people live in areas, where there is high risk of drought, 21 percent of agricultural lands may become salty, 15 percent of agricultural lands may be covered with sand, and 86 percent of lands may be affected by severe degradation.
CAREC notes that over the past decade, an average temperature in spring increased by 0.6ºC. Every year, Central Asia reportedly loses about 1.0-1.5 percent of its glacial area, and Tajikistan accounts for about 10 percent of losses of the total area of glaciers.
The 2018 report by the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) says 36.7 percent of Central Asia’s territory has been degraded, and this is one of the highest rates in the world.
Drought is one of the most destructive natural disasters in terms of the loss of life, arising from impacts, such as wide-scale crop failure, wildfires and water stress.
Desertification is not limited to irreversible forms of land degradation, nor is it equated to desert expansion, but represents all forms and levels of land degradation occurring in drylands.
Tajikistan is one of Central Asia’s most economically vulnerable nations due to desertification, because socio-economic consequences of the processes of land degradation and drought threaten great disasters to the residents of the country, especially to the population living in mountainous and foothill areas.
The effects of climate change have a strong impact on agriculture. Low water, drought, soil depletion and other factors will lead to up to 30-percent decline in agricultural productivity in some regions of the country by 2100, potentially affecting about 2 million people.
In Tajikistan, agriculture now accounts for more than 60% of employment and 21.9% of GDP.
Decrease in the volume of glacial areas will have a significant impact on fresh water supplies, leading to the fall in water levels in the country’s rivers, including Zarafshon, Kofarnihonm Qaratogh and Obikhingou (left tributary of the Vakhsh River), further exacerbating tensions over rights to use water resources both inside and outside state borders.
Tajikistan joined the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in 1997. In the frame The Central Asian Countries Initiative for Land Management (CACILM-2) and other initiatives aimed at the balanced use of natural resources, modern agricultural technologies are being introduced in countries, land use maps are being developed, and amendments are being made to the countries’ legislations and sub-laws.
