The management of the Water Resources Service of Kyrgyzstan conducted an inspection in the Talas region, assessing the condition of key irrigation facilities and the progress of preparations for new large-scale projects. The working trip covered the Aitmatovsky, Bakai-Ata, Talas and Manas districts, where the issue of providing farmers with irrigation water during the growing season is acute, reports «Bishkek.media».
The focus was on the Great Talas Canal – the most important waterway in the region, feeding over 20 thousand hectares of sown areas. Today, the canal, with a length of 74.4 km, is in dire need of rehabilitation, since only 10.9 km of its channel has concrete cladding. This results in significant water losses. Currently, repair work is being carried out by regional and district water management departments to increase the efficiency of the canal with a capacity of 12 m³/sec.
To radically solve the problem of water shortage, it is planned to build two strategic facilities. The first will be a reservoir on the Ken-Kol River in the Talas region with a volume of 6 million cubic meters. This project will not only accumulate water for rational use, but will also improve water supply on 4,277 hectares of farmland, and also optimize the water supply to the Great Talas Canal.
The second, even larger project will be the construction of a reservoir on the Urmaral River in the Bakai-Ata region. Its design volume will be 50 million cubic meters, which will ensure a stable water supply to 13,294 hectares of irrigated land. The economic effect of its construction will be twofold: it will not only eliminate moisture shortages during critical agricultural periods, but will also allow up to 1,200 hectares of new irrigated land to be put into agricultural use.
Following the visit, the management of the Water Resources Service gave instructions to ensure an uninterrupted supply of irrigation water to farmers this season and to complete all construction work efficiently and on time. The implementation of the plans should become a key factor in the stabilization and development of the agricultural sector of the Talas region, reducing its dependence on weather conditions.
