Farmers in Jetisay Report Water Shortage, Water Ministry Says Irrigation Is Ongoing

Farmers in the Jetisay district of the Turkistan Region are once again facing a lack of irrigation water, leaving some at risk of financial collapse. However, the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation says the situation is under control, with water being supplied and crops growing, reports Orda.kz.

In response to Orda.kz’s report that farmers in Jetisay have been without irrigation water since early summer, the Ministry offered an official statement saying the situation is not critical.

As of today, 236.1 million cubic meters of water have been delivered to the district’s farmers. In early July, water delivery through the Dostyq canal was planned at 80 cubic meters per second, but the actual flow was 50 cubic meters per second. This was due to unstable water management conditions in the upper Syr Darya River. Currently, the situation in Jetisay is stable,
the Ministry stated.

According to the Ministry, 32 cubic meters of water per second are currently reaching the district, 2.5 times less than the planned volume. Farmers are irrigating their fields in rotation. The Dostyq main canal serves 84,300 hectares in Jetisay, and water is being supplied to farms that have contracts with Kazvodkhoz.

The Ministry also said that during the current growing season, more than 5.35 billion cubic meters of irrigation water have been delivered to farmers across five southern regions of Kazakhstan, with nearly one-third going to the Turkistan Region.

Additionally, 125.7 million cubic meters were used for pre-season soil flushing across 50,000 hectares in Jetisay.

This year, the irrigation season in southern Kazakhstan began 20 days earlier due to weather conditions and high temperatures. Thanks to early water delivery, farmers in the Turkistan Region harvested their first cabbage in mid-April, melons and watermelons in late May, and eggplants in June,
 the Ministry noted.

However, farmers interviewed by Orda.kz expressed a different view, showing reporters their dried-out fields.

Original Author: Alina Pak