At the Government session under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov the Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nurzhan Nurzhigitov reported on the results of the growing season of the current year, primeminister.kz reports.
He reported that this year's irrigation season was successful. Agrarians in the southern regions (Almaty, Turkestan, Kyzylorda, Zhambyl region and Zhetisu region) supplied 10.9 km3 of water for regular irrigation. The total irrigated area was more than 1.2 million hectares, i.e. 97 per cent of the total water intake.
At the same time, I note that floods did not affect the southern regions of the country, there in recent years the cycle was low-water and in order to prevent water shortages we have strengthened work on negotiations with neighbouring countries, which have fulfilled all the agreements we have reached," Nurzhan Nurzhigitov said.
According to plans, the Shardara reservoir was expected to receive 3.7 billion m3 of water, but in fact, during the irrigation period this year it received 4.8 billion m3.
In addition, for guaranteed water supply through the Dostyk canal, on 6 June 2024, a tripartite protocol on the operation mode of the Bakhri-Tochik reservoir was signed, according to which the total volume of water supply to the Kazakh part of the Dostyk canal was 491.14 million m3. From 1 June to 30 August, the Dostyk canal delivered 532 million m3 of water to the Kazakh part, which is 41 million m3 more than the schedule.
During the growing season, we managed not only to provide irrigation water to agrarians, but also to send about 1 billion m3 of water to the Northern Aral Sea, which exceeds last year's figures by three times," the minister stressed.
According to the approved schedule of water supply by interstate sources of the Shu and Talas rivers for the irrigation season, Kazakhstan actually received 418 million m3 of water instead of the expected 380 million m3. This is 94.2 million m3 more than last year.
In general, the growing season in the two basins passed without complications, the requests of all agricultural producers were satisfied. The growing season in the Balkhash-Alakol basin was also stable, about 3 km3 of water was taken for regular irrigation. In the other basins, the growing season was at the level of previous years and without risks," Nurzhan Nurzhigitov informed.
To ensure stability during the growing season, preparatory work was started in advance with provincial akimats. The Ministry approved a work plan for the non-vegetation and vegetation period of 2023-2024, which provides for the implementation of external and internal measures.
At the expense of the tariff, repair works were carried out on 230 hydraulic structures and mechanical cleaning of the irrigation network with a total length of 992.9 km was carried out.
To exclude unproductive intermediaries and reduce the tariff burden on farmers during the growing season, it was decided to conclude direct contracts between RSE "Kazvodkhoz" and farmers. This eliminated more than 50 intermediaries, which in turn allowed farmers to receive irrigation water directly from "Kazvodkhoz".
In 2024, branches of RSE "Kazvodkhoz" concluded 24,710 contracts, which exceeds the number of contracts concluded in 2023 by 25 per cent.
To implement the Head of State's instruction, the task to increase the area of application of water-saving technologies up to 150 thousand hectares annually has been set and relevant indicators for each oblast have been provided," Nurzhan Nurzhigitov noted.
For this purpose, together with the Ministry of Agriculture, amendments were made to the rules of investment subsidies, which provides for an increase in the share of reimbursement of farmers' costs from 50% to 80% for the drilling of wells to connect the infrastructure, as well as for the purchase and installation of water-saving technologies. At the same time, 30% is subsidised at the expense of the local budget.
Starting from 2024, when irrigating with the use of water-saving technologies, the amount of subsidies for irrigation water was from 60% to 80%, depending on the cost of the tariff.
At irrigation without application of water-saving technologies the amount of subsidies decreases depending on the tariff from 50% in 2024 to 30% by 2026.
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