On October 23, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev held a meeting on improving drinking water supply and sewage systems in the regions.
According to the analysis, today the cost of 1 cubic meter of drinking water is 448 soums in Tashkent, 3,000 soums in Namangan, and 2,600 soums in Samarkand and Navoi. The share of electricity in the cost of water production is 27% on average across the country. But this indicator is high in Fergana, Namangan, and Tashkent regions.
During the meeting, it was noted that despite the fact that solar panels are being installed in enterprises, organizations, and households, the work of water supply enterprises, which consume 880 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, is not significant in this regard.
Mirziyoyev told regional governors that water management companies should switch to using “green energy”, thus cutting their expenses. It will in turn help to reduce prices for end-users.
Currently, water companies are buying 1 kilowatt-hour of electricity for 900 soums. The price of electricity produced at solar stations is on average 350-400 soums, that is, more than 2 times cheaper. By attracting investors, solar panels can be installed on vacant lots around waterworks.
The president also said that it is necessary to replace old drinking water pumps with energy-efficient ones. Reconsidering the cost of water projects, the possibilities of localizing the materials used in them were shown.
It was decided that new projects in the field would be discussed in local councils after getting the opinion and approval of the residents. All information related to how much money has been allocated to the project, which enterprise is the contractor, and when it will start work will be announced separately. In this way, public control will be strengthened in this regard as well.
Earlier, it was reported that 39 billion cubic meters of water were consumed in Uzbekistan's agriculture during the year. Of this, 36 percent or 14 billion cubic meters was lost in canals and ditches. Another 5-6 billion cubic meters of water is lost due to outdated irrigation methods.
Currently, more than 5,000 pumps are used to irrigate 2.5 million hectares, and 7 billion kilowatt hours of electricity are consumed annually. But 80 percent of the pumps have been used for 35-40 years and have become almost useless. It is noteworthy that despite the allocated funds in 2020, more than 60% of the pumps have outlived their usefulness, and water losses have reached 35-40 percent. That is, instead of modernizing the pumps and reducing the losses, the situation has worsened over the past three years.
The increase in drinking water tariffs in Uzbekistan, the reduction of rice cultivation areas in Karakalpakstan, and the fact that Kyrgyzstan has stopped supplying water for irrigation to Kazakhstan indicate that the water crisis in the region is intensifying.
