Comparison of practices

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

Use of water resources

Country: Turkmenistan

Province: Mary Region

District: Sakarçäge District

Other settlement: Zakhmet Daikhan Farm

Country: Kazakhstan

Province: South Kazakhstan Region

District: Maktaaral District

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 hydro-posts are located in foothill and/or flat areas with the water stream speeds in canals fluctuating between 0.1 and 1.5 m/s

Start date: 01.01.2009

End date: 31.12.2010

Start date: 01.01.2015

End date: 31.12.2017

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.

• Inefficient management of water resources;
• Inefficient planning of water distribution

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

DUV 2/0.005-10 Water Level Sensor

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.

The DUV 2/0,005-10 Sensor was deployed and demonstrated its efficiency in Jambyl and Southern Kazakhstan Regions.  It allowed to visually and in real-time observe the dynamics of water level fluctuations and completely exclude manual operations and subjectivity in the process of taking readings – a relevant task in the environment of transition to market economy.

Water level sensors were installed in 17 hydro-posts in Southern Kazakhstan Region (Maktaaral District).  In Jambyl Region, the same sensors were installed in 3 hydro-posts in Merke District.

Results:

Technical:

a) immediate data exchange on water volume passing through every water lead to the fields of agricultural producers (farms) as well as automatic transfer of this information to stakeholder organizations (branch of “Kazvodkhoz” Republican State Enterprise (RSE), etc.);

b) archiving the data coming from hydro-posts with its subsequent processing in the form of reports.

Technical and economic:

1) “all in one” – all components of DUV 2/0.005-10 are assembled into one unit/casing, do not require any additional modules and adjustments, i.e. it is an out-of-the-box universal tool to execute monitoring of water reserves irrespective of the availability of power supply and other technical and weather conditions.  The simple Sensor’s design facilitates installation and start-up and commissioning, as well as allows minimizing labor costs;

2) DUV 2/0.005-10 is flexible in terms of installation, data transfer methods, measurement subject (water level or hydro-lock position, etc.);

3) the cost of the measuring unit is 3-4 times less compared to currently available alternatives;

4) DUV 2/0.005-10 designed architecture allows increasing the number of controlled points and performing an integrated monitoring of the whole network.

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:

Deployment of the DUV 2/0.005-10 Water Level Sensor led to increased precision of water level and consumption measurements and higher promptness of information collection compared to any known methods.

Using the device in the conditions of water resources deficiency, on the one hand, will ensure objective accounting of water use and, on the other hand, will promote water conservation among water users which will lead to more efficient technological development of agro-industrial complex and higher labor productivity.

Recommendations:

The success of deploying water level sensors in project hydro-posts facilitated execution of measures to disseminate the positive experience of using the device in the water sector.  Their effect will be even more significant as enhanced quantity and quality indicators will ensure effective management of water resources and water conservation with simultaneous development of irrigated agriculture.

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

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

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).

1. Project title: Implementation, scientific and methodical support and dissemination of automatic water-monitoring and water-accounting instruments in water measuring facilities of the pilot site in Jambyl Region.

Project goal: implement the innovation in the agro-industrial complex of Jambyl Region by way of installing water level sensors (DUV 0.005-10 Model, designed by KazSRIWE LLP) in hydro-posts along the Merkenka River and its diversion canals: Chon, Tesken, MPT of Merke District of Jambyl Region.

2. Project title: Implementation, scientific and methodical support and dissemination of automatic water-monitoring and water-accounting instruments in water measuring facilities of the pilot site in Southern Kazakhstan Region.

Project goal: implement the innovation in the agro-industrial complex of Southern Kazakhstan Region by way of installing water level sensors (DUV 0.005-10 Model, designed by KazSRIWE LLP) in hydro-posts along the diversion canals of Dostyk Main Canal in Maktaaral District of Southern Kazakhstan Region.

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

1. Implementation, scientific and methodical support and dissemination of automatic water-monitoring and water-accounting instruments in water measuring facilities of the pilot site in Jambyl Region: R&D Report (final)/ Kazakh Scientific Research Institute of Water Economy, supervised by Karlykhanov, O. K., executed by Li, M.A., Bakbergenov, N.N., Zhakashov, A.M., Imanaliyev, T. K., Ponkratiev, D.M., Taraz 2017, p. 108;
2. Implementation, scientific and methodical support and dissemination of automatic water-monitoring and water-accounting instruments in water measuring facilities of the pilot site in Southern Kazakhstan Region: R&D Report (final)/ Kazakh Scientific Research Institute of Water Economy, supervised by Karlykhanov, O. K., executed by Li, M.A., Bakbergenov, N.N., Zhakashov, A.M., Imanaliyev, T. K., and Ponkratiev, D.M., Taraz 2017, p. 80.

SIC ICWC

Li Marina 

Scientific Research Institute of Water Economy

+7(705)5774464

E-mail: limarina76@mail.ru