The 86th meeting of Interstate Commission for Water Coordination (ICWC) of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan took place in Shymkent, Kazakhstan on April 12, 2024. The meeting was hosted by Kazakhstan.
The agenda included the following items: 1) the results of the use of water withdrawal limits and operation regimes of reservoirs in the Syr Darya and Amu Darya River basins during the non-growing season 2023-2024; 2) approval of the country water withdrawal limits and forecast operation regimes of reservoirs in the Syr Darya and Amu Darya River basins for the growing season 2024; 3) progress on tasks set from the summits of the Heads of IFAS Founder States; 4) agenda and venue of the regular 87th ICWC meeting; and 5) additional items.
On the first item, Basin Water Organization (BWO) Amu Darya and BWO Syr Darya reported on implementation of water withdrawal limits and operation regimes of reservoirs in the Syr Darya and Amu Darya River basins during the non-growing season 2023-2024.
On the second item, the heads of BWO Amu Darya and BWO Syr Darya made their proposals on the country water withdrawal limits and forecast operation regimes of reservoirs in the Amu Darya and Syr Darya River basins for the growing season 2024.
On the third item, Director of ICWC Scientific-Information Center (SIC), D. Ziganshina, reported on progress of work undertaken by water management organizations and ICWC executive bodies for implementation of the proposals and initiatives voiced at the Summits of the Head of IFAS Founder States in Turkmenbashi (2018) and Dushanbe (2023). The ICWC executive bodies were instructed to continue this work.
The need to strengthen training at regional and national levels was stressed. Thus, it is necessary to intensify cooperation with international partners in this area.
After discussion, relevant decisions have been made on all items.
There is currently no information on the ICWC’s website about how much water will be taken by the countries of the region to irrigate fields and what volume of water will be supplied to the Aral Sea.
Annually, water intake from Amu Darya is about 56 billion cubic meters, of which about 40 billion cubic meters of water are intended for the growing season – from April through October.
Under this agreement, Tajikistan had received little more than 6.9 billion cubic meters of water, Uzbekistan – 16 billion m3 of water, and Turkmenistan – 15.5 billion m3 of water.
Annually, water intake from Amu Darya is about 11.9 billionm3, of which Tajikistan had received 1.9 billion m3 of water during the summer growing season, Uzbekistan – 8.8 billion m3 of water, Kazakhstan – 920 million m3 of water, and Kyrgyzstan – 270 million m3 of water. \\
Irrigated area in the Central Asian region in 20024:
- Uzbekistan – 4.3 million hectares (ha);
- Kazakhstan – 2.5 million ha;
- Turkmenistan – 1.9 million ha;
- Kyrgyzstan – 1 million ha;
Tajikistan – 680,000 ha
