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.
Citing the Minister of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources of Kazakhstan Serikali Brekeshev, Kazakhstan’s Kazinform news agency says it is about diversion of water from Bahri Tojik reservoir to Kazakhstan on a commercial basis due to Kyrgyzstan’s share in the Syr Darya River.
“Besides we have agreed conditions for the Bahri Tojik reservoir drawdown. These conditions are enshrined in a tripartite protocol signed by Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in Dushanbe,” Brekeshev clarified.
Kazinform does not specify what these countries have offered in return for the provided water resources.
Recall, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan in February reached agreement on delivery of irrigation water to Kazakhstan during this year’s growing season. This issue was discussed during a working visit of the Kazakh Deputy Minister of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources, Serik Kozhaniyazov, to Dushanbe on February 21. 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.
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 water was delivered to Kazakhstan’s Turkestan and Kyzylorda regions via Kyrgyzstan from June to August.
Kazakhstan, in turn, undertook to provide Tajikistan with material and technical support in the event of negative consequences from the depletion of the Bahri Tojik reservoir.
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.
