Japan to Provide Kyrgyzstan with Grant to Improve Irrigation
The “Improvement of Irrigation Canal Maintenance Equipment” project, for which the grant is being provided, is designed to improve the Water Resources Service’s supply of earthmoving and other equipment. Specifically, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will purchase excavators, front-end loaders, bulldozers, dump trucks, and lowboys for Kyrgyzstan with 1.087 billion Japanese yen (or just over $7.2 million). A total of 44 units of equipment will be purchased for seven regions.
In recent years, incomplete canal reclamation and cleaning has led to a reduction in their capacity, which, in turn, has impaired water supply to water users. Due to the insufficient construction equipment, most canals are operated with virtually no major repairs or modernization, or only a small section of the canal or collector is repaired and mechanically cleaned. Consequently, irrigation systems are becoming increasingly silted up, canal linings are failing, metal and reinforced concrete structures of hydraulic structures are being damaged, and infrastructure is deteriorating. As a result, the efficiency of canals and collectors has decreased, with their throughput capacity dropping by up to 30%.
Insufficient mechanized cleaning of collector and drainage networks leads to waterlogging and soil salinization, and a decrease in the fertility of irrigated land. According to the Water Resources Service, the country has 50,600 hectares of saline land and 30,500 hectares of waterlogged irrigated land. Due to a lack of mechanisms and resources, the area of lands with poor reclamation potential increases by 5% annually.
Since the early 1990s, central funding for the purchase of new machinery and equipment has been insufficient, resulting in the existing earthmoving equipment falling into disrepair, with the equipment fleet depreciating at 80%.
The republic’s state irrigation facilities are annually exposed to mudflows and floods. Especially due to climate change, the number of landslides is increasing, and the same facilities are destroyed several times a year.
To fully address irrigation issues, the Cabinet of Ministers needs to secure approximately 58.8 billion soms in funding from external and domestic sources.
