Tajikistan Water Sector Development Strategy.

Tajikistan Water Sector Development Strategy is multi-sectoral document elaborated by the Ministry of Land Reclamation and Water Resources of the Republic of Tajikistan, UNDP Office in Tajikistan and Executive Committee of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea. The Strategy considers the problems of water resources, their integrated management, the state of the water sector and prospects for its development within the borders of the Republic of Tajikistan with a focus on economic growth and poverty reduction. The scope of this Strategy is not to unite all sectors of the water management complex into a single economic complex, but effective interaction between them, the implementation of unified policy, decision-making and implementation of decisions that provide the greatest economic and social benefits with minimal damage to the environment. The overall objectives of the Strategy shall be as follows: (a) ensuring optimal water resources needs of all categories of water users and consumers taking into account interstate water sharing; (b) rehabilitation of existing water infrastructure with its production base; (c) ensuring full reimbursement of water supply costs; (d) full development of irrigable land; (e) introduction of new cost-effective technologies; (f) implementation of an effective water saving program; (g) gradual solution of environmental problems related to water (floods, mudflow prevention, waterlogging, rehabilitation of engineering structures, land salinization, breakthrough lakes, pulsating glaciers, water pollution, etc.); and (h) protection of national interests on the basis of market relations and interstate agreements.
The basis of agricultural production is irrigated agriculture, which accounts for up to 90% of all agricultural production. Created irrigated agro-landscapes, providing some employment, play an important economic, environmental, ecological and social role for 72% of the country's population. In Tajikistan, the minimum per capita availability of irrigated land in the Aral Sea basin is only 0.116 hectares, including 0.08 hectares of irrigated cropland/per capita. This indicator tends to decrease as the population grows due to the practical suspension of the introduction of new irrigated lands due to the lack of financial resources. Water supply and sewerage are among the main life-support systems of the population and the economy. They are of strategic, political and social importance. About 30 per cent of the country's water supply networks do not function for various reasons, and only 60 per cent of the population uses tap water and 40 per cent directly from rivers, canals, small irrigation networks and other water sources that are unsanitary. The efficiency of sewage treatment facilities does not exceed 40%. Sewerage coverage in the country is 23%. In fact, the existing water intake in Tajikistan is about 20% of the volume of water formed in the country and 11% of the average annual flow of the Aral Sea basin. More than 37% of the water withdrawn from the sources is returned to the receptors in the form of waste and collector-drainage water.
The Strategy separately considers strategic objectives and ways of their solution in the field of water resources management and development, urban and rural water supply and sanitation, industrial water supply and pollution control, irrigation and drainage, hydropower, environment related to the water sector, as well as flood control and preparedness for these disasters. Water Sector Development Strategy provides a sound basis for ensuring the rational and efficient use of water resources with maximum possible and balanced benefits for all water users, while minimizing the negative impact on the environment. The main principles of the Strategy are the achievement of three objectives: to promote economic, social and environmental development inherent in integrated water resources management. The main purpose of the construction of water reservoirs is to ensure the integrated use of water resources in the interests of the electric power industry, irrigation, flood protection, fisheries, recreation, technical and domestic water supply, taking into account national and regional interests on a mutually beneficial basis.
The main constraints that arise and are overcome in the process of decision-making related to construction of water reservoirs are as follows: (a) problems of fundraising; (b) technical problems of dam safety in conditions of seismic activity, complicated geological and engineering and other natural conditions; (c) the need to take into account environmental, social and transboundary impacts; (d) creation of adequate public opinion at the national and regional levels; and (e) the need for highly qualified human resources.
Expected results: (a) regulation of water supply and sewerage systems; (b) rehabilitation of existing of water supply and sewerage systems; (c) construction of local and medium water supply and sewerage systems; (d) doubling access to potable water and sanitation; (e) guaranteed water supply to residents connected to the existing system, including upper floors of high-rise residential buildings and guaranteed quality of potable water; and (f) guarantee of complete biological treatment of wastewater, corresponding to the maximum allowable concentration of pollutants in effluent waste water discharged into the environment.