Uzbekistan Environment - The Times Of Central Asia

Viewing results 7 - 12 of 277

Water Resources

Kazakhstan Trades Electricity for Water in Bid to Mitigate Summer Drought Risks

Central Asia is entering a new phase in the management of its water-energy nexus, moving from declarations to practical coordination. A trilateral protocol signed in Almaty by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan marked a significant step toward stabilizing the region’s water regime amid escalating climate risks. Brokered under Kazakhstan’s chairmanship, the agreement aims to balance the load on the Toktogul Reservoir, the main regulating structure of the Syr Darya basin. Kyrgyzstan typically increases winter water discharges to generate electricity, which reduces irrigation water availability downstream during summer. Under the new deal, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan will supply Kyrgyzstan with electricity during winter, in return for Kyrgyzstan's commitment to store water and ensure its release during the 2026 growing season. The Almaty Protocol complements the existing plan for filling the Shardara Reservoir, which aims to accumulate 11 cubic kilometers of water by April 1, 2026. Achieving this target hinges on Toktogul’s operations. Without external support, Kyrgyzstan’s energy infrastructure would struggle to meet the requirement. Supplemental electricity from Astana and Tashkent thus forms the economic backbone of this arrangement. Longstanding disparities in regional water and energy needs remain a source of instability. Kyrgyzstan requires water in winter for hydropower, while Kazakhstan, especially its Turkestan and Kyzylorda regions, relies on it in summer for irrigation. Recent water shortages have pushed the countries toward more pragmatic coordination. Uzbekistan has committed to managing the technical conditions for transit and balancing inter-system flows. Despite facing its own energy shortfall and aging infrastructure, Kazakhstan is participating in regional stabilization to avert socio-economic risks in its southern provinces. External factors are adding urgency to regional cooperation. Afghanistan’s construction of the Qosh-Tepa Canal is expected to reduce the Amu Darya’s water balance by 20-25%. Although Uzbekistan is most directly affected, the resulting pressure on water systems could also impact the Syr Darya, on which southern Kazakhstan heavily depends. Internally, Kazakhstan faces persistent challenges. Water loss during transport reaches up to 40-50% due to outdated canal infrastructure. Rice cultivation continues in the water-intensive Kyzylorda region, while water-saving technologies are used on only about 30% of irrigated land. These new agreements suggest that Central Asian countries can rapidly implement collective mechanisms in response to shared threats. In effect, elements of a regional Water and Energy Consortium are already operating in a de facto, ad hoc manner. Water, energy, and food security are increasingly seen as interconnected resources requiring coordinated governance. For Kazakhstan, the priority now is to institutionalize these provisional agreements. If the “electricity-for-water” model can be formalized into a durable framework, it could stand as one of the most significant accomplishments of the country’s regional diplomacy.

Air Pollution

Tashkent Launches Emergency Measures as Air Pollution Worsens

Tashkent is experiencing a significant decline in air quality, prompting President Shavkat Mirziyoyev to sign a decree on November 25 implementing urgent environmental measures. According to the presidential press service, the decree establishes a special commission to take immediate steps to stabilize the situation. The decision follows a high-level meeting on November 24 chaired by Saida Mirziyoyeva, head of the Presidential Administration, to discuss “urgent measures to improve the ecological situation in Tashkent.” Experts at the meeting presented a series of short, medium, and long-term proposals, ranging from immediate restrictions to structural reforms aimed at preventing future pollution spikes. The new plan includes enhanced environmental monitoring, stricter controls on major polluters, tighter regulations for construction sites, and citywide greening initiatives. Authorities also intend to develop a modern air quality assessment system supported by new scientific infrastructure. A key component of the initiative is the establishment of a specialized laboratory under the State Committee for Ecology to analyze sources of PM2.5 pollution, one of the primary contributors to the current smog. To expedite the process, the decree exempts a broad range of imported equipment from customs duties. These exemptions apply to automated monitoring stations, dust-gas filtration systems, localized water-treatment devices, and thousands of quartz filters required for sampling. The measure also extends to household air purifiers brought into the country by individuals and businesses, as demand for such devices has surged. In response to the prolonged dry conditions, the Muslim Board of Uzbekistan announced the performance of istisqo, a traditional Islamic prayer for rain, to be held on November 28 following Friday prayers in mosques nationwide. “In Islamic history, istisqo has been performed during periods of drought, and its benefits have been noted in hadith literature,” the Board stated. Teachers and students from Islamic institutions will also recite the entire Sahih of Imam al-Bukhari before the prayer. This call for collective prayer comes as climate change continues to intensify environmental stress in Uzbekistan. According to a newly released Atlas of Environmental Change by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), Uzbekistan’s average annual temperature has risen by 1.6°C over the past 60 years, nearly three times the global average of 0.6°C. In the Aral Sea region, warming has reached 1.8 to 2.5°C, contributing to more frequent droughts, particularly in summer and autumn, and placing further strain on already limited water resources. UNEP describes Uzbekistan’s water resources as “among the country’s most valuable and vulnerable,” noting that they depend almost entirely on sources located outside its borders. The atlas highlights the increasing importance of integrated water-resource management and cross-border cooperation, which officials say have already helped address local water-security issues. The agency also points to the adoption of water-saving technologies such as drip irrigation, which are critical to sustaining the country’s irrigated agricultural sector, the backbone of many rural economies. Despite demographic and environmental pressures, the report finds that Uzbekistan has achieved near self-sufficiency in food production. Reforestation is also a national priority. UNEP praises the Yashil Makon (Green Space) initiative, launched in 2021...

Afforestation

Planting Trees to Heal Old Wounds: Can a Desert Forest Save the Aral’s Last Residents?

In the Aralkum Desert, afforestation campaigns have multiplied since the early 2000s. They are meant to slow the sandstorms, temper a rapidly warming climate, and protect the health of those still living in the shadow of the Aral Sea. But the promised results have not appeared yet. The road from Aralsk to Aiteke Bi cuts through a palette of ochre and dust. Trucks drift forward in pale clouds, dragging the desert behind them like a long train. In these villages scattered along the former shoreline of the Aral Sea, the wind never leaves. It is abrasive, restless, and a witness to a vanished water body that once cooled the hottest corner of Kazakhstan. Respiratory diseases now run through family histories, and doctors say they can recognize lungs shaped by ecological collapse. At the polyclinic in Aiteke Bi, patients describe the same symptoms with weary precision: breath shortening too quickly, coughs that never fully recede, a fatigue that never seems to lift. Nuralay, 52, says the storms “get into the house, into the throat, into everything.” She admits she cannot remember a season without irritation in her chest. For Dr. Kuanyshqar Assilov, who has watched the pattern deepen for years, the cause is unmistakable: decades of airborne salts, pesticide residues, and industrial chemicals lifted from the dried seabed of the Aral Sea. [caption id="attachment_39897" align="aligncenter" width="1378"] In Aralsk, sand covers everything[/caption] Marat Narbaev, executive director of the International Fund to Save the Aral Sea (IFAS), recounts the disaster’s origins with a mixture of resignation and habit. He traces it back to the 1960s, when Soviet planners diverted the Amu Darya and Syr Darya to feed cotton monocultures. “The cotton was used to make clothing for soldiers and ammunition,” he says. Today, he argues, the basin faces two pressures: “climate change and demographic growth. Fifty million inhabitants… soon seventy.” In this landscape, the promise of restoring the region through afforestation has acquired symbolic weight. Saxaul trees - hardy, grey-green, capable of surviving in brackish soils - are planted by the millions on the exposed seabed. Officially, they are meant to stabilize sand, calm storms, and cool the surface. Unofficially, they carry the hope that life here might once be breathable again. Survivalist tree? On paper, the saxaul is a biological survivalist: roots plunging more than 30 feet deep, the ability to stabilize dunes, lower surface salinity, and grow dense enough within a few years to slow the wind. In Aralkum, a village east of Aralsk, residents praise the planting that lines a dozen houses. “It really worked, the storms became more bearable,” a man says. Then he shrugs: more trees should have been planted. “We asked for the other side of the village, but there’s no funding left.” Nowadays, half of the trees have died, and the rest lie buried beneath the dunes. [caption id="attachment_39896" align="aligncenter" width="1378"] In Aralkum village, half of the surviving trees barely emerge from the sand[/caption] Sometimes, past plantations have almost zero trees left. According to a 2021...

COP30

From Glaciers to Green Goals: Central Asia at COP30

The UN Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Belém, Brazil, concluded with a hard-fought global deal that boosts climate finance for developing countries but avoids any promise to phase out fossil fuels. Amid this uneasy compromise, the Central Asian nations worked to get their priorities heard. Their delegations pressed for more climate funding, recognition of their unique vulnerabilities, and support for regional initiatives, with mixed results. A United Regional Voice on Climate Home to over 80 million people, Central Asia entered COP30 with a goal outlined as “five countries, one voice,” after a regional dialogue in Dushanbe ahead of the summit forged a common stance on shared threats such as melting glaciers and water stress. The region has already warmed about 2.2 °C – faster than the global average – and glaciers are shrinking by roughly 0.5% each year, Uzbekistan’s environment minister Aziz Abdukhakimov warned in Belém. He noted worsening land degradation and vanishing water resources, underscoring Central Asia’s acute climate vulnerability. In response, Uzbekistan unveiled a new pledge to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2035 (from 2010 levels) by expanding renewable energy and forests. Such actions align with COP30’s call for developed nations to triple adaptation finance by 2035 to help vulnerable countries cope. “COP30 showed that climate cooperation is alive and kicking, keeping humanity in the fight for a livable planet,” UN climate chief Simon Stiell said in his closing speech, praising delegates for persisting despite global divisions. National Commitments and Initiatives Kazakhstan, Central Asia’s largest economy and emitter, took on a visible role at COP30. Its delegation was led by Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Yerlan Nyssanbayev, who addressed the summit’s opening session. Nyssanbayev reaffirmed Kazakhstan’s commitment to the Paris Agreement goals, noting the country has adopted a “Revised Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) and a National Adaptation Plan” with more ambitious targets to cut emissions and bolster resilience. “It is crucial for us to consistently work toward achieving our climate goals,” he stated. Nyssanbayev emphasized the importance of climate finance for developing countries, highlighting the new “Baku–Belém Roadmap” to mobilize $1.3 trillion annually by 2035 and urging support for a significantly increased funding mechanism. Kazakhstan also became one of only seven nations – and the sole Central Asian country – to sign a joint declaration pledging “near zero” methane emissions from its fossil fuel sector. In a sign of ongoing regional leadership, Nyssanbayev invited all delegates to attend a Central Asia Regional Environmental Summit that Kazakhstan will host in 2026, aiming to sustain climate cooperation beyond COP30. Kyrgyzstan, given its geography, used the summit to champion the mountain agenda and the plight of high-altitude communities on the frontlines of climate change. The Kyrgyz Republic chairs the UNFCCC’s Mountain Group and sent a delegation led by Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers, Edil Baisalov, and Dinara Kemelova, the President’s Special Representative for the Mountain Agenda. In the first week of COP30, Kemelova delivered keynote remarks at multiple high-level sessions, calling for strengthened international support and...

Rogun Dam

Environmental Groups Criticize World Bank’s Decision on Rogun Dam Complaint

Environmental advocates have sharply criticized the World Bank’s decision to reject a request for a full investigation into Tajikistan’s Rogun Hydropower Plant, citing concerns over potentially severe environmental and social consequences for communities downstream along the Amu Darya river in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. According to the international coalition Rivers without Boundaries, the World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors dismissed the complaint despite mounting evidence that the project could exacerbate water scarcity, degrade water quality, damage vulnerable ecosystems, and displace rural populations dependent on agriculture and access to clean water. The complaint, filed earlier this year on behalf of affected communities, argued that the project’s environmental impact assessments were based on outdated data and non-binding verbal assurances from Tajikistan that the reservoir would not be operated at full capacity. The World Bank’s Inspection Panel registered the complaint in April 2025 and, after conducting an initial review, including a fact-finding visit to Tajikistan in June, recommended a comprehensive investigation, citing a strong likelihood of harm. However, the Bank’s Board rejected that recommendation, asserting that only citizens of the country receiving Bank financing are eligible to request an investigation. This decision surprised observers, particularly given that the Bank had previously accepted similar complaints from Uzbekistan over the same project in 2010. Environmental groups argue that the Board’s procedural reasoning allows it to ignore the project's far-reaching transboundary impacts. Evgeny Simonov, a lead expert at Rivers without Boundaries, stated that the Inspection Panel’s own findings validated the downstream communities’ concerns. He accused the Bank of avoiding accountability by hiding behind technicalities. Alexander Kolotov, director of the same coalition, said the ruling reveals a contradiction between the Bank’s public commitments to inclusive development and its actual response to cross-border grievances. He warned that dismissing downstream voices undermines the principles of equitable and participatory water governance. Environmental experts also caution that the refusal to launch an investigation leaves no recourse for affected communities should their fears materialize. Potential long-term impacts include increased soil salinity, reduced agricultural productivity, and the erosion of traditional rural livelihoods. The Rogun Alert coalition, an alliance of international environmental organizations, announced plans to continue monitoring the situation and to explore alternative mechanisms to protect the environmental rights of the region’s residents. Previous assessments had warned that filling the Rogun reservoir could reduce water flows to the Amu Darya delta by 25% or more, with potentially devastating effects on ecosystems and the wellbeing of up to 10 million people in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.

Air Pollution

Tashkent’s Air Pollution Crisis Sparks Public Concern and Expert Warnings

On November 20, local media reported that Tashkent briefly topped the global air pollution rankings compiled by IQAir, drawing urgent public attention to the capital’s worsening environmental conditions. According to IQAir, the city’s PM2.5 concentration reached 229 at 10:51 a.m. on November 21, placing Tashkent behind only Delhi and Lahore for hazardous air quality. Experts Warn of Long-Term Mismanagement Behind Toxic Air Environmental specialists attribute the crisis to deep-rooted structural mismanagement. Environmental advocate Mutabar Khushvaktova cited IQAir’s breakdown of primary pollution sources: summer dust storms (36%), heating systems running on coal and fuel oil in autumn and winter (28%), vehicle emissions (16%), and industrial activity (13%). Khushvaktova argued that ineffective oversight across construction, industry, transportation, and urban development has contributed to the current crisis. “Even after the Ministry of Ecology was established, conditions did not improve. Initially, the ministry reacted defensively to criticism but then stopped responding altogether. If this continues, public frustration will intensify and the economy will suffer. Illness will increase, productivity will fall, hospitals will be overwhelmed, and skilled professionals may leave the country,” she warned. She outlined several urgent steps: increased government transparency, expert-led planning, strict protection of green zones, enhanced oversight of construction sites, mandatory filtration at industrial plants, and boosted funding for water and glacier research. She also emphasized safeguarding forests, reservoirs, and nature reserves from tourism-related development and called for full reform of Tashkent’s landscaping department. “We need stable urban ecosystems, modern irrigation systems, restored canals, and composting initiatives. This work must be done in close cooperation with the Ecology Committee,” she said. Families in Tashkent Voice Growing Health Concerns Madina Mo‘minova, a writer and filmmaker known for her work on environmental themes in children’s literature, expressed grave concern for families in the capital. “Air quality in Uzbekistan, especially in Tashkent, has reached an unbearable level,” she said. “I fear for my children and grandchildren. People are afraid to open their windows or even go outside. Many are already thinking about leaving.” Mo‘minova noted that while the government has taken preliminary steps, the response needs to be more comprehensive and sustainable. “Greenhouses shouldn’t just be shut down, they need access to clean energy sources like natural gas to prevent recurring pollution after every inspection. We want to live in a safe, healthy country, not one teetering on ecological collapse,” she said. Urban Planners Call for Infrastructure Restoration and Stricter Oversight Temur Akhmedov, an expert on green urban development, stressed the importance of rehabilitating traditional infrastructure. “Restoring canals should be the top priority in Tashkent and other cities,” he said. “In many areas, the damage is extensive, but we must recover what we can.” He also advocated for halting new construction until a comprehensive environmental strategy is in place, along with enforcing dust-control measures at existing sites. These environmental concerns coincide with accelerated urban development plans. On November 20, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed a decree aimed at stabilizing the housing and mortgage markets. The initiative includes plans to double annual housing construction by 2040, reaching 421,000...