Payment for mistakes in Kazakhstan’s water policy is on the doorstep, warns agro-expert Kirill Pavel. Uzbekistan, at the presidential level, has already implemented a water-saving regime, but our officials continue to live by the principle of «let the flood come after us.»

Here’s what Pavel writes on his Telegram channel:

«Starting next year, Uzbekistan is transitioning to a state of emergency water-saving mode. President Mirziyoyev initiated a meeting where they announced a water deficit of 15 billion cubic meters by 2030. These are exactly the figures that Afghanistan will take through the ‘Kosh-Tepa’ canal. This is what I have been talking about for the past two years. I hope someone has at least heard it in passing.

So, I want to ask our Greta Bulatovna — what mythical 2 billion cubic meters of water did you negotiate with Uzbekistan? 90% of their water goes to the needs of agriculture, and the share of agriculture in the country’s GDP is over 19%. Whom are you deceiving, Greta Bulatovna? They won’t give an extra liter. The whole world already understands, except Kazakhstan, how important it is to use water rationally. For example, the company Al Dahra from the UAE grows alfalfa in Arizona (USA) solely because they know the value of water. And what about us, Aidarbek Seyilovich? Will we bet on wheat with a yield of 5-6 c/ha, or will we plant sequoias in Kyzylorda? Do you have a vision?

We don’t have so much water to behave so wastefully as we do now — growing gardens and hundreds of thousands of hectares of melons in Kyzylorda, demanding subsidies for cattle in Mangystau, draining Taldykorgan in Astana, growing rice wherever we want, stealing during the construction of irrigation systems, attributing mythical canals to sell ‘left’ water, trying to rely on underground waters and not noticing the impending problems in the south, pretending that Kosh-Tepa won’t affect us.

In reality, we need to calculate the water footprint and extract maximum benefits with minimal water costs, abandon wastefulness, and start classifying water — stop trying to quench people’s thirst with technical water while using drinking water to wash streets. But this is already Nurzhan Nurzhigitov’s job. I don’t even know if all of this will be enough with such an approach, but if you hope to miss the finale of this drama, then in vain, it is already just around the corner.»