The Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation of the Republic of Kazakhstan has denied media reports claiming that farmers in the Zhetysay district of the Turkistan Region have not received irrigation water since the beginning of summer. According to the Ministry’s press service, these claims are inaccurate, Infotabigat.kz reports.
The Ministry stated that since the start of the growing season, 236.1 million cubic meters of water have been delivered to local farmers. Irrigation is being carried out through the Dostyk Main Canal, which services 84,300 hectares of agricultural land.
While it was initially planned to supply 80 cubic meters of water per second through the canal in early July, actual flow volumes were reduced to 50 cubic meters per second due to unstable hydrological conditions in the upper reaches of the Syr Darya River. As of now, the situation has stabilized: Zhetysay is receiving 32 cubic meters of water per second, and fields are being irrigated in rotation.
The Ministry emphasized that irrigation water is supplied exclusively to farms that have valid agreements in place with Kazvodkhoz, the state enterprise responsible for water distribution.
“The Dostyk Main Canal, managed by the Turkistan branch of Kazvodkhoz, provides irrigation for 84,300 hectares of farmland in the Zhetysay district. Water is supplied only to those farming enterprises that have signed the appropriate contracts with Kazvodkhoz,” the statement reads.
Since the beginning of the season, Kazvodkhoz’s regional branches have delivered more than 5.35 billion cubic meters of irrigation water to farmers across five southern regions of Kazakhstan. Of that amount, 1.79 billion cubic meters were allocated to farms in the Turkistan Region.
The Ministry also noted that this year’s irrigation season began 20 days earlier than usual due to weather conditions and high temperatures. This allowed farmers in the Turkistan Region to harvest their first crops earlier than expected: cabbage in mid-April, melons and watermelons in late May, and eggplants in June.