Kyrgyzstan

From WaterWiki.net

Kyrgyzstan is part of:
Asia & Pacific · Central Asia · Europe & CIS ·
Water Basins of Kyrgyzstan:
Aral Sea · Chu-Talas · Ferghana Valley · Isfara · Tarim · Vahksh ·

Facts & Figures

edit

Capital

Bishkek

Neighbouring Countries

China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan

Total Area

198,500 km²

- Water

7,200 km² (3.63%) / 363 m²/ha

- Land

191,300 km²

Coastline

0 km

Population

5,263,794 (26 inhab./km²)

HDI^A

0.694 (2007)

Gini Coefficient^A

30.3 (1995)

Nominal GDP^B

$5,050 million

GDP (PPP) Per Capita^B

$2,200

National UN Presence

UNDP, UNHCR, WHO, UNICEF, WB, UNESCO

Land Use^C

- Cultivated Land

13,066 km² (6.83%)

- Arable

12,530 km² (6.55%)

- Permanent Crops

536 km² (0.28%)

- Irrigated

10,720 km²

- Non cultivated

341 km² (93.17%)

Average Annual Rainfall^D

533 mm

Renewable Water Resources^E

46.5 km³

Water Withdrawals^F	10.08 km³/yr
- For Agricultural Use	94%
- For Domestic Use	3%
- For Industrial Use	3%
- Per Capita	2,036 m³

Population with safe access to
- Improved Water Source	77%
- Urban population	98%
- Rural population	66%
- Improved Sanitation	59%
- Urban population	75%
- Rural population	51%

References & Remarks

^A UNDP Human Development Report

^B CIA World Factbook and Wikipedia

^C CIA World Factbook Country Profiles

^D Aquastat - FAO's Information System on Water and Agriculture

^E CIA World Factbook

^F Earthtrends

Latest 4 maps for / including Kyrgyzstan (more..):

Kyr hydrobasinmap.jpg

Mudflow Kyrgyzstan.gif

Kyrgyzstan polMap CIA.jpg

Central Asia Region Map.jpg

1 News
2 Country Profile: Climate, Geography, Socio-Economic Context
3 Country Profile: Water Bodies and Resources
4 Country Profile: Legal and Institutional Environment
5 Country Profile: Water Sector Coordination
6 Country Profile: Trends in Water Use, Management and Sanitation
7 Country Profile: Challenges and Opportunities
8 Articles
9 Projects and Case Studies
10 Publications
11 Who is Who
12 References
13 See also
14 External Resources

News

Country Profile: Climate, Geography, Socio-Economic Context

Agriculture is the leading sector of the Kyrgyz economy. As noted, irrigation is critical for crop production. About 1.1 million hectares have been developed for irrigation, i.e., more than 80 percent of the arable land in the country. Since the dissolution of the former Soviet Union, lack of funding for maintenance has resulted in the deterioration of the irrigation dams (bringing with it related safety problems) and reduced capacity of the primary and secondary irrigation systems. Irrigation infrastructure within the boundaries of the former farms has been affected by lack of maintenance as well. Many pumping stations have slowed or stopped operations. In-field water application is inadequate due to lack of equipment and skills. The clogging of drainage systems is leading to increased water logging and soil salinization.

Only about one third of the country's 4.6 million inhabitants has piped water to their homes. Another third receives water from stand posts or water tankers, and the remaining third has no organized water service. About half of the estimated 1,750 villages have no functioning water system. In the southern Oblasts of Osh and Jalalabad, only about 25 percent of the villages have operable water systems. Because of the poor state of repair of facilities, lack of maintenance and insufficient resources available for operations, the reliability and safety of the service is becoming an ever more important concern and source of discontent for the population. Service interruptions have become the norm, particularly in the summer months.

Country Profile: Water Bodies and Resources

The Kyrgyz Republic is well endowed with water resources, most of which originate from melting snow and glaciers. Precipitation varies greatly, ranging from 130 to 680 millimetres per year, most in the basin of the Syr Darya and a small share in the basin of the Amu Darya. By international agreement, 25 percent can be retained, of which about 90 percent is used for agricultural purposes. There are six main river basin groups in the country. No rivers flow into the Kyrgyz Republic. Because half or more of the country's precipitation falls outside the growing season, growing-season precipitation is inadequate for crop production, and so irrigation is undertaken widely.

Kyrgyzstan has considerable reserves of water resources. Annual average volume water of total water resources makes up 2,458 km³ including 50 cub.km of surface river runoff, 13 km³ of potential reserves of ground water, 1,745 km³ of lake water, *650 km³ of glaciers.

The territory of the Republic except for its highlands is located in a zone of insufficient moistening, where agriculture mainly depends on artificial irrigation. Therefore irrigation is a basic direction of use of water resources. For this purpose from river basins Chu-Talas, lake Issyk-Kul a lot of canals were taken out. Most of the mountain rivers are taken out in summer for irrigation at exit from zone of formation and do not reach main rivers. Water storages serve for purposes of more complete utilization of the rivers runoff. They are: Toktogul (volume 19.5 km³) on the Naryn river, Orto-Tokoi (volume 470.0 mln m³) on the Chu river, Kirov (550 mln m³) on the Talas river and series of small water pools, having local significance. Total amount of water storages in the Republic is 15 with useful capacity more than 10.0 mln m³, from which 3 are of energy use, 2 – of energy and irrigation use and 10 – of irrigation use.

Kyrgyz glaciers are one of the main sources of formation of the rivers’ flow, therefore all the rivers refer to glacial-snow or snow-glacial types of feeding with a mean annual flow of about 50 billion m³.

In total 27826 small and large rivers are formed on territory of the Kyrgyz Republic, which are in overwhelming majority the trans-boundary ones. Only the rivers of a basin of Yssyk-Kul lake refer to the internal (local) rivers.

The main source of drinking water supply is underground waters. Besides drinking water supply the underground waters are used for the industrial needs and partially for land irrigation.

Country Profile: Legal and Institutional Environment

Interstate water relations are covered by regional agreements on the status of organizations of the IFAS - International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea, and by a Kyrgyz-Kazakh interstate agreement on the joint use of water resources and water facilities of the Chu and Talas river basins. Although interstate coordination of water use by the Kyrgyz Republic, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan is of great importance, a mutually agreed strategy does not yet exist.

Country Profile: Water Sector Coordination

See Sector coordination sub-page for detailed description

Country Profile: Trends in Water Use, Management and Sanitation

The Kyrgyz Republic is endowed with sufficient quantities of water of excellent quality for domestic and industrial use for the foreseeable future. Due to commitments towards downstream countries, water availability is likely to become a constraint on expanding irrigation, extending land reclamation, and improving productivity of irrigated areas, unless there are significant improvements in efficiency, and a major effort made to increase water conservation.