Water is of Paramount Importance

The 84th meeting of the Interstate Coordinating Water Commission (ICWC) of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea (IFAS) was devoted to approving the water withdrawal limits for the five countries of the Central Asian region and forecasting the operation mode of reservoir cascades for the growing season of 2023 in the Amudarya and Syrdarya basins. The meeting took place in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, which chairs the Fund, which, in turn, is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year with the participation of representatives of all member countries of the Fund, including Turkmenistan. Our country was represented by employees of the State Committee for Water Management. During the meeting, devoted to the results of the use of limits and modes of operation of reservoirs for the non-growing period of 2022–2023 for the river basins, representatives of the Amudarya and Syrdarya Basin Water Associations presented a message. These decisions were made at the previous meeting of the ICWC, which was held in Ashgabat on November 22 last year, where a water intake was installed on the Amudarya River for Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and in the Syrdarya basin for Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The Amudarya makes a contribution to maintaining the agricultural production of the region, the flow rate of another waterway in the region is much more modest, the volumes are planned “with a margin”. During the meeting, the reports of representatives of the ICWC RC on the implementation of proposals and initiatives voiced at the Summit of the Heads of the IFAS Founding States, held in Turkmenistan (city of Turkmenbashi) in 2018, were heard.