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Success Story
Uzbek farmers no
longer have to fight over
irrigation water
No More Fights Over Water
Photo: WUASP
Tursun Jonikulov is one of many farmers
in Samarkand Oblast who have benefited
from USAID assistance.
“Due to construction of
new water structure there
are no longer quarrels or
fights for water,” said Tursun
Jonikulov, an 81-year-old
farmer from Samarkand
Oblast, Uzbekistan.
Tursun Jonikulov, an 81-year-old farmer in Samarkand Oblast, was
among the first to receive water from a newly built water
distribution point. The structure, made possible by USAID, allows
for easier irrigation as well as a guaranteed water supply for 824
hectares of farm land owned by 800 people.
The USAID Water Users Associations Support Program is helping
farmers increase their incomes through the improved management
of their water systems.
More than two-thirds of the Uzbekistan population depend on
irrigated agriculture. Old and inefficient pumps, water logging,
salinization, silted canals, and mismanagement have all led to
a decrease in irrigated land and crop yields. Water supply is
unreliable or completely nonexistent in many areas. Consequently,
farm incomes have dropped precipitously.
The irrigation system in Jonikulov’s community was broken for many
years, making it impossible for other farmers and small garden
owners like Jonikulov to irrigate land and produce good yields. To
irrigate their fields, farmers used to divert the water manually by
barricading the canal with bushes, bags of dirt, and anything else
they could find. They also had to sit and guard their temporary
structures, sometimes even through the night, so that others would
not divert it to other locations. The farmers frequently argued and
even fought over the water flow, especially during peak times.
“Only the most powerful were able to get the necessary amount of
water, but the price we paid to the water utility was very high,” says
Jonikulov. “We had constant conflicts that were time, money, and
energy consuming.”
USAID helped the farmers in Jonikulov’s community install new
irrigation water distribution equipment, renovate the canals, and
organize a new way to disperse water among the users. The water
user association members were trained in how to manage irrigation
water and the association’s finances, resolve conflicts, and run their
organization.
“Now all I have to do is submit a request to the water users’
association offi ce and they do the rest,” says Jonikulov. “There are
no quarrels for water, and there is no need to guard the water all the
time.”
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