19.07.2021

On July 19 President Shavkat Mirziyoyev held a meeting on improvement of agricultural infrastructure through the modernization of pumping stations.

There are 1,687 pumping stations in the country, 299 of them have become obsolete, resulting in 80 thousand hectares of land being withdrawn from circulation, and water supply has deteriorated on 607 thousand hectares of land. It will take €700 million to modernize these stations.

At the first stage, it is planned to modernize 95 pumping stations in Surkhandarya, Kashkadarya, Samarkand, Navoiy and Bukhara regions at the expense of a foreign credit in the amount of €146 million.

The measures to be taken in this direction were determined at the meeting.

The Ministry of Water Resources has been instructed to hold tenders for purchase of equipment and start construction by the end of the year.

The domestic businesses produce 15 out of 86 types of pumping equipment and 20 out of 80 types of electric motors that are required for modernization. The President highlighted the necessity of wider use of this factor while purchasing the equipment.

Within the framework of the project, it is planned to put back into use 40 thousand hectares of land and improve the water supply in 315 thousand hectares of land. In particular, the volume of irrigation will be increased in 3 districts of Bukhara and 3 districts of Navoiy regions, 5 districts of Kashkadarya Region, 6 districts of Samarkand Region and 11 districts of Surkhandarya Region, totally in 28 districts.

The Deputy Prime Minister and khokims (governors and mayors) of the regions have been tasked to adopt a program on the placement of higher profit crops in areas where water supply will be improved, to provide the permanent employment for 80 thousand people on this basis.

The President noted that by introducing water-saving technologies on the lands covered by the project, water consumption could be reduced by 40%, and 20 thousand hectares of additional land could be put into use.

The necessity of raising the qualification of pumping stations maintenance specialists, organization of training courses and seminars for them was emphasized.

The recently upgraded «Dustlik» pumping station in Guzar District of Kashkadarya Region was mentioned as an example. As a result of its modernization it improved the water supply to 11 thousand hectares of land, operational costs decreased from 300 million Uzbek soums to 100 million Uzbek soums, 8 million kWh of electricity is saved annually.

The responsible persons were instructed to establish the systematic control over the project, to ensure the effective use of funds. It was pointed out the importance of connecting each pumping station to clusters and to ensure their participation in all stages of project implementation.

At the meeting, the ministers and regional khokims reported on the expected results of the forthcoming work.