Comparison of practices

• Use of water resources
• Use of land resources
• Environmental protection

• Use of water resources
• Use of land resources
• Environmental protection

Country: Turkmenistan

Province: Mary Region

District: Sakarçäge District

Other settlement: Zakhmet Daikhan Farm

Country: Uzbekistan

Province: Fergana Region

District: Kuva District

Other settlement: Khamroli-Ota Farm

Sakar-Chaga District (area of 53,000 ha; population of 132,000 people) is located in the northwestern part of Mary Region in the Murgab River delta. The majority of local residents live in the oasis hosting 80% of settlements.

The site is located in the zone of ground water shallow occurrence

Start date: 01.01.2009

End date: 31.12.2010

Start date: 01.01.2010

End date: 31.12.2012

Land salination represents the main challenge in the area due to improper irrigation technology and lack of drainage, in their turn leading to extremely low productivity. With time, the existing irrigation management system resulted in irrational use of water and land. While water distribution rates were calculated in a centralized manner depending on specific crops, in practice water supply monitoring is extremely poor – water supply (canals) infrastructure is inconsistent with farmers’ needs leading to excessive and, vice versa, insufficient watering of different sites. In addition, there exists an informal water payment system leading to the advantageous position of certain users.

Flooding of settlements; salination of irrigated land

Set of hydro-reclamation measures: preventive land forming (leveling), composting, monitoring of ground water bedding and mineralization, decentralized water management planning, capacity building, etc.

GIS-technologies and remote-sensing tools

Actions:

A series of measures were executed to prevent land degradation and improve land reclamation condition, including introduction of high-performance drainage systems and reclamation technologies, construction of a new collector and cleaning of the existing one, construction of 9 water-regulating and 2 water-measuring facilities.

Results:

• 50 hectares of degraded land rehabilitated and can be used for agricultural purposes. About 35 ha of land saved from degradation thanks to preventive land forming;
• regular seminars held for land users on potential ways of applying various advanced methods of maintaining rural economy and effective use of water resources;
• about 60 measuring stations installed to monitor the level and mineralization of ground water.

In 1980, specialists of NPO SANIIRI (Research and Development Association “Central Asian Research Institute of Irrigation”) designed and for the first time applied this type of drainage in the Qarshi Steppe where it demonstrated its efficiency.  The project was suspended due to lack of funding.  The re-launch of the project and installment of a combined drainage system in Kuva District (2010) once again confirmed its high efficiency and profitability, especially in areas of confined underground waters.  Further on, the model was applied in Rishtan, Altyarik and Baghdad Districts where it is successfully working.

Actions:

1. reconstruction of the open collector;
2. construction of the combined drainage system;
3. operation of the combined drainage system;
4. consultations with local experts on designing and constructing combined drainage systems;
5. holding a training for Basin Irrigation System Administration (BISA) and Reclamation Expedition (RE) personnel on combined drainage system operation;
6. development and distribution of training materials.

Results:

Financial and economic:

Specific construction costs (sum/ha) of the combined drainage system were twice less compared to horizontal drainage models.  Vertical drainage of 1 hectare of land requires 700-800 kWh of energy, whereas the combined drainage is hyperpiestic.  Maintenance costs for combined drainage systems are also much lower compared to horizontal and vertical drainage models – specifically, twofold less than for closed horizontal and threefold less for vertical. The combined drainage systems also allowed increasing crops productivity.

Technical:

The reclamation condition of farm land has improved.

Lessons learnt:

• salinized land was rehabilitated not only thanks to reclamation actions but also by composting. In particular, high-quality humus is produced to enhance soil salinity parameters;
• the process of designing water use plans for individual farmers launched;
• one new collector built.

Recommendations:

It is necessary to focus on strengthening the role of local associations in rendering irrigation services and managing the canal’s water level.  Local water users will be rendered an opportunity to design effective irrigation water management schemes.  The experience of decentralized water planning and management accumulated by water tenants will be documented and distributed as a part of knowledge-management (capacity-building) strategy.  It is necessary to closely cooperate with the newly established Agriculture Advisory Service working on sustainable land and water management, as well as to disseminate corresponding practices in other areas.

Lessons learnt:

The practice has confirmed its high efficiency and profitability of combined-type drainage, especially in areas with confined underground water.

Recommendations:

It is necessary to widely apply combined-type drainage where hydro-geological conditions allow it.

Domestic tools (outcomes of research by domestic R&D organizations)

R&D product by NPO SANIIRI (Research and Development Association “Central Asian Research Institute of Irrigation”)

1. Cost of implementation: High

2. Approximate cost of investment per 1 ha:

3. O&M costs: High

4. Expert support: Not needed

1. Cost of implementation: High

2. Approximate cost of investment per 1 ha:

3. O&M costs: High

4. Expert support: Not needed

Project title: Local-level capacity building and investment for sustainable management of land resources.

Project duration: 2009-2010.

Project goal and objectives: overcoming barriers to higher efficiency and performance of water supply systems in climate change induced drought conditions.

Project beneficiaries: Zakhmet Daikhan Farm (approximately 300 daikhan households).

Project implementer: Ministry of Nature Protection of Turkmenistan and German Technical Cooperation Agency (GIZ).

Project title: Application of GIS-technologies for reclamation.

Project duration: Jan 2010-Dec 2012 (3 years).

Project goal and objectives: comprehensive support of Reclamation Expedition (RE) specialists; introduction of new technologies; enhancing RE technical capacities to ensure a more expedient implementation of projects to improve the reclamation condition of irrigated land with the aim of receiving better agricultural yields with the simultaneous maintenance of environmental equilibrium in the area.

Project beneficiaries: Fergana Region and Syr Daria Region Reclamation Expeditions.

Project implementer: Management Department of the Foundation for Reclamation Improvement of Irrigated Land.

http://www.turkmenistan.ru/?page_id=3&lang_id=ru&elem_id=17207&type=event&layout=print&sort=date_desc 

Ekologicheski Vestnik (Environmental Digest) Journal,

Issue 11, 2012 (http://lrf.uz/?p=283&lang=ru).

SIC ICWC

SIC ICWC