Water crisis is around the corner: what Uzbekistan proposed at the 7th summit in Baku
Uzbekistan has proposed declaring 2026–2036 as the Decade of Practical Actions for the Rational Use of Water Resources in Central Asia. The initiative was voiced at the 7th summit in Baku, reported Zakir Ishpulatov, First Deputy Minister of Water Management and Director of the Water Management Facilities Operation Agency. According to him, by 2040, the reduction in the flow of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers could lead the countries of the region to […]
Water crisis is near: what Uzbekistan proposed at the 7th summit in Baku
Uzbekistan has taken the initiative to declare 2026–2036 the Decade of Practical Action for the Rational Use of Water Resources in Central Asia. This was announced at the 7th summit in Baku by Zakir Ishpulatov, First Deputy Minister of Water Resources and Director of the Water Resources Facility Operation Agency.
As Ishpulatov noted, by 2040, the reduction in the flow of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya could lead the countries of the region to a high level of water stress. In this regard, Tashkent insists on concrete steps to strengthen regional cooperation.
The proposals include more active involvement of Afghanistan in the dialogue on the joint use of the water resources of the Amu Darya basin, the creation of a Regional Center of Competence in Water Management based on the National Research University "Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Agricultural Mechanization Engineers," as well as holding a Water Week in Central Asian countries on a regular basis.
In addition, Uzbekistan has been elected Chair of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea for 2027–2029. Among the priorities outlined by the country's president are improving the legal and institutional framework of the Fund, intensifying water, energy, and environmental cooperation, expanding interaction with Afghanistan and international financial institutions, and raising the culture of water use.
According to Zakir Ishpulatov, the key task of the summit in Baku is to strengthen dialogue and trust in Asia. For Central Asia, this is of practical importance: against the backdrop of growing risks of water scarcity, the region needs coordinated decisions and sustainable mechanisms for the joint management of transboundary resources.