World Bank funds water project in Aral Sea region

The Government of Uzbekistan and the World Bank signed a Drainage, Irrigation and Wetlands Improvement Project, worth US $74.55 million which is “the first meaningful intervention in the Aral Sea Basin to break a vicious cycle of high water applications, water logging and secondary soil salinisation”, according to Masood Ahmad, head of the World Band team designing the project. The agreement hopes to increase the productivity of irrigated agriculture, employment and incomes, improve the water quality of the Amu Darya River by safe disposal of drainage effluent and enhancing the quality of wetlands in the Amu Darya delta, an accompanying statement said. Ahmad added the project would begin to address the problem by substantially improving drainage conditions and significantly improving water use efficiency in the irrigation sector. The Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources will implement the programme, which will also develop institutions for maintenance of irrigation and drainage systems, and for promoting sustainable irrigated agriculture through participatory irrigation management. The Uzbek Government will invest US $14.55. "The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) will contribute with US $35 million repayable in 20 years with a five-year grace at a World Bank standard rate, and the International Development Agency (IDA) will provide US $25 million, repayable in 35 years with a ten-year grace”, IRIN Matluba Mukhamedova, Communications Officer in the World Bank Country Office in Tashkent, told IRIN. The shrunken Aral Sea, is now acknowledged to be the biggest man-made ecological disaster on the planet. Soviet planners, starting in the 60’s, cut off the rivers that fed the Aral Sea, to irrigate new cotton fields in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. The climatic and ecological, and health impact has been devastating.