EDB published a review “Efficient Irrigation and Water Supply in Central Asia”
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Published today, a large-scale review of the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) “Efficient Irrigation and Water Supply in Central Asia” is formally devoted to the regulatory, political and investment problems of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan. The de facto interest of the EDB in the topic is probably explained, among other things, by the relationship between the productivity of the region’s agro-industrial complex and the saturation of the markets of the EAEU countries with fruits and vegetables. After the start of the military operation in Ukraine and the subsequent sanctions from developed countries, the largest Russian market in the union lost part of its supplies and periodically turns out to be in short supply, which becomes noticeable in the dynamics of fruit and vegetable inflation (see Kommersant on November 13). The countries of Central Asia could largely cover this deficit, but they experience a systemic shortage of water for irrigated agriculture. According to the EDB, since the times of the USSR, its quantity per capita has been halved, and in a business-as-usual scenario, taking into account hydraulic engineering activity in Afghanistan, where the Kosh-Tepa canal is being built, which could deprive one of the main rivers of the region, the Amu Darya, of half of its flow, Water shortages in the region will only worsen.
The problem is common to all Central Asian countries and, according to EDB analysts, requires the same comprehensive solution. Thus, losses of up to 40% of all water on the canals supplying it are a consequence of the degradation of irrigation systems, and their renovation requires regulatory and tariff reforms – SROs of water users do not have sufficient weight to consolidate water supply projects, tariffs do not carry the necessary investment component and in 4–15 times lower than justified, and the agro-industrial complex and hydropower compete for water.
Accordingly, to solve the problem, the EDB sees it necessary to implement a set of measures – from consolidating water consumers, developing renovation projects and organizing their financing through PPP mechanisms to building interstate structures capable of coordinating water conservation at the regional level, including the creation of clusters that allow de facto cross-subsidization of irrigation for profit account of the agro-industrial complex, industry and energy. Otherwise, water shortages will increase, threatening the economies of the Central Asian countries – for example, the share of the agro-industrial complex in their GDP is already steadily declining (see graph).
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