Kazakhstan to send a note to Uzbekistan over Turkestan region flooding

Kazakhstan will send an official note to Uzbekistan with a request to provide full information about the breakthrough of the dam at the Sardoba reservoir, as a result of which 10 settlements were flooded in the Turkestan region, Tengrinews.kz reports.

The Ministry of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources of Kazakhstan will send an official letter to its Uzbek colleagues with a request to provide full information about the hydraulic structures erected by Uzbekistan in trans-boundary waters.

According to the norms of international agreements, to which Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are also parties, a party is obliged to notify and coordinate with the neighboring country the construction of hydraulic structures on trans-boundary rivers. And the Sardoba reservoir was built by Uzbekistan without coordination with the Kazakh side.

“The construction of the indicated reservoir was not agreed with us. We repeatedly pointed this out to the Uzbek side but received meager, insufficient information about it. Today we have prepared a note, it will be sent through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in which we ask the Uzbek side to provide us with a complete list of all the objects that were built in the Syrdarya river basin on our trans-boundary waters,” said Sergey Gromov, Vice Minister of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources of Kazakhstan.

As a result of the dam break, 276 square kilometers were flooded, 76 sq km account for Kazakhstan.

According to Gromov, on May 1 he received a call from the Deputy Minister for Water Resources of Uzbekistan, who announced the breakthrough of the dam, and also assured that not a single drop will reach Kazakhstan.

“Despite these assurances, we nevertheless organized an emergency evacuation work. Fortunately, we managed to avoid casualties, save people and livestock,” Gromov said.

In the note, Kazakhstan may demand compensation for the caused damage.

“We have the right to demand, we were affected. We insist that the dam is not restored at all, if it is restored, then in smaller volume,” the Vice-Minister said.