Uzbekistan and Tajikistan
Water management assistance program: special initiative water project
Since 2001, the Central Asian Republic of Uzbekistan has experienced severe drought, largely affecting the Republic of Karakalpakstan in western Uzbekistan. The Amu Darya River, its major water source, is at less than 40 percent of its normal water level and has dried up short of its destination, the Aral Sea. The drought has caused much of the population to lose access to acceptable quality drinking water because surface and groundwater supplies have become increasingly exhausted, mineralized and brackish. As a result, the incidence of waterborne diseases has increased and agricultural production is almost non-existent.
PA and its Water IQC team members are assisting the Government of Uzbekistan in implementing a number of emergency and long-term measures for improving its drinking water supply infrastructure. They include the drilling of new wells and boreholes, installing well pumps and water desalting plants, and procuring vehicles for water carriers and tanks that deliver clean potable water to remote inhabited localities without on-site sources
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