How much water will Uzbekistan receive this year from the Amu Darya and Syr Darya water reservoirs?

The water withdrawal limits for the Central Asian countries were approved back in November last year in Ashgabat during a meeting of the Interstate Commission for Water Coordination (ICWC).

The overall annual water withdrawal from the Amu Darya basin (from October 1, 2022, to October 1, 2023) is set at 55.4 billion cu m, of which 15.7 billion will be taken during the non-growing season (before April 1, 2023).

Under that agreement, Tajikistan would receive 9.8 billion cubic metres of water, Uzbekistan some 23.6 billion and Turkmenistan 22 billion.

Water withdrawal from the Syr Darya basin is limited to 4.2 billion cubic metres, of which Tajikistan will receive 365m cubic metres, Uzbekistan 3.3bn, Kazakhstan 452m cubic metres and Kyrgyzstan 47m cubic metres.

It is noted that water availability in the Amudarya basin during the growing season of 2022 was rather ambiguous: while in April-May it was within the norm, from June it dropped to 85-65% and remained below the norm until the end of the period.

In the current water situation in the basin water was used for 79.1% of the total limit, including Tajikistan actually used 95.3%, Turkmenistan - 83.3% and Uzbekistan - 68.7% of the allocated norm.

From April 1 to September 30, 2022, water withdrawals from the Syrdarya river basin totaled 10.1 billion cubic metres against a limit of 11.8 billion cubic metres. Of that amount, Tajikistan used over 1.5 billion cubic metres against a limit of 1.9 billion cubic metres.

The next 84th ICWC meeting will be held in Dushanbe in April 2023, where the issues of water supply during the growing season of the new agricultural season will be additionally discussed.