Comparison of practices

• Use of water resources
• Use of land resources

Use of water resources

Country: Kazakhstan

Province: Jambyl Region

District: Talas District

Other settlement: Village of Sadu Shakirov

Country: Kyrgyzstan

The site is located in the desert foothill plain in South-ern Kazakhstan (internal drain area) at the very end of Sharuashlyk Irrigation Canal.

Start date: 01.05.2008

End date: 30.04.2009

Start date: 01.02.2017

End date: 31.12.2017

Acute water shortage; land degradation in the village of Sadu Shakirov; abandoned irrigated arable lands used only for year-round cattle grazing.

For a long time, the irrigation canal was not operation-al and, thus, became dilapidated. The situation in the area was aggravated by climate change impacts (de-creased quantity of early spring, summer and winter precipitation, increased average annual temperature, spring and autumn frost bites and summer droughts).

Insufficient level of objectivity while selecting candidates, i.e. selection of final candidates not based on their knowledge and skills but illicitly

Method of autumn and winter water-charging irrigation

Technique of knowledge assessment

Actions:
1) Reconstruction of the canal, stop-gates and field irrigation networks (rehabilitation of irrigation furrows),
2) Setting up artificial pastures with forage crops

Results:

Financial and economic:
Using water-charging irrigation for rangelands allowed increasing their productivity from 3.5 to 5 dt/ha and receiving 60 tons of herbage for cattle and sheep and goats from non-cultivated land.

Technical:
1) 12 km of the canal and 5 stop-gates to regulate water releases restored,
2) 5 km of irrigation furrows built,
3) Cultivated pastures with forage crops created (soil preparation, alfaalfa planting, coordination of irrigation norms),
4) Fields are prepared during the summer-fall period, and watered during late fall or early spring.

Actions:

The participants were offered to undergo 2 exams (written and oral) within the framework of the Olympiad.  Finalists of the written test could go on to the oral exam.

Results:

1 student was selected from among the candidates to participate in subsequent Regional IWRM Olympiad and the International Summer School “Methods and Means of Assessing, Modelling and Monitoring the Water and Land Resources of Central Asia” to take place in Almaty City.

Lessons learnt:
Application of water-charging irrigation allowed in-creasing water availability and, as the result, productivity of agricultural crops.

Application of water-charging irrigation demonstrated the efficiency of water use and allowed local popula-tion to go through winter without losing livestock.

Recommendations:
The method can be used in areas/communities where along with crop growing the population is also involved in livestock breeding.

Formally, this competitive practice is routine while selecting the personnel/specialists for international and national projects, but their unbiased selection is not achieved in all cases. Quite often, various types of project participants are selected by way of “pulling strings” or based on the instruction of upper-tier agencies.

Traditional tools transferred from generation to generation that proved their efficiency in modern conditions

• Domestic tools (outcomes of research by domestic R&D organizations),
• Foreign tools (transfer of foreign experience)

1. Cost of implementation: High

2. Approximate cost of investment per 1 ha:

3. O&M costs: High

4. Expert support: Not needed

1. Cost of implementation: High

2. Approximate cost of investment per 1 ha:

3. O&M costs: High

4. Expert support: Not needed

Project title: Fall and early spring Irrigation of arable land and pastures as an adaptation mechanism of ra-tional water use in Southern Kazakhstan

Duration: May 1, 2008 – April 30, 2009

Project goal and objectives: reduce land degradation due to climate change by way of rational use of irriga-tion water. The project was implemented to prevent loss of cattle due to forage shortage during alternating droughty years.

Project beneficiaries: local population.

Project implementer: Kogal LLC

1) UNDP Compilation “Climate change adaptation: ex-amples from Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan”, Tashkent 2012;
2) pandia.org

http://www.water.kg/index.php/ru/itemlist/category/93-seminary-i-treningi 

SIC ICWC

SIC ICWC