On June 18, Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation announced that during this year’s irrigation season, the country will receive 180 million cubic meters of water from the Shu River and 380 million cubic meters of water from the Talas River from upstream Kyrgyzstan.
As reported by Kazakh Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Nurzhan Nurzhigitov, the agreement between the two countries was reached during the 33rd meeting of the Shu-Talas Water Commission.
Agreements were also settled on the extent of work required on the repair and reconstruction of water management facilities located on the transboundary Shu and Talas rivers.
Welcoming the decisions, Minister Nurzhigitov commented: “International cooperation is one of our ministry’s key goals. In preparation for the irrigation season, a lot of work has been undertaken to provide farmers in the south of Kazakhstan with necessary volumes of water, and important negotiations have taken place with neighbouring countries. Today’s agreement with the Ministry of Water Resources of Kyrgyzstan to increase water supply along the Shu and Talas rivers, will be implemented from June 21.”
The agreement follows that between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan for the supply of 922 million cubic meters of water to the former through the Dostyk interstate canal.
