The road from Bukhara to Khorezm is amazingly beautiful. You keep going through the desert Kyzylkum. A little later is Gazly, the road is constantly filled up with sand, and you can make a couple of scenic shots of the sand drift. On the road the Saxaul desert jays are running along the whole desert. You have a feeling that the Hollywood animated cartoon about the bird running on the road (Road runner), was inspired by this particular bird.

Sandy road…

Saxaul desert jay
4 projects are implemented by the GEF SGP in Khorezm: the project on laser leveling, the project on biogas, the project on energy efficiency in irrigation and indigo project. We are met by Professor Nazar Ibragimov, who is also a member of our National Steering Committee. We are welcomed in the building of the joint project of ZEF / Bonn, UNESCO and Urgench University. John Lamers, Project Manager and his team are introducing us with the project activities through a number of interesting presentations.

After introduction with the activities of the project, we go to the project territories, so that the members of our committee could get acquainted with our projects.

The first project is a project on biogas based in the training center of Urgench State University. The biogas installation will be designed to serve as a dummy model for the university students, who have practice in the base. Currently, the installation is fixed and the works for connecting gas storage and supplying gas in the premises for further usage, are under way. Trial loadings have been made, the gas was received, the unit operates normally. The committee members talked with the members of the project team and with its leader - Atabek Atamuradov.

The next project for review was the project on energy efficiency in irrigation. The situation with this project is more difficult. Let me remind you that the point of the project is as follows:

The bottom of the channel of the lowest level, which brings water directly to the consumers - the farmers, is lined with polyethylene and closed with soil. The channel looks absolutely normal. But such insulation inside it can significantly and inexpensively reduce water losses for infiltration and allows to raise the water level and feed it by gravity, without the use of old inefficient pumps. More information about the project can be found on its web page.

By the time of visiting the project site by the steering committee, a half of the channel has been isolated by the project. Work should continue after the end of the irrigation season in the winter. But the completion of isolation of the half of the channel allows to compare the loss in the non-isolated and isolated parts of the channel.

Now all measurement results are being prepared, they will be published in a separate article.

The committee members talked with the local residents asking various questions. And to the question "Will the locals make such a project at their own expense?" a negative answer was received. Maybe technology is good and inexpensive. But the question remains: Why people must save water? It is free. While it is free, then there is no sense in saving it. The farmers from the Water Users Association (WUA), which are located in the upper part of the channel have water anyway – be it little or much. They are the first in the queue for the channel and get their water first. Saving water is profitable only to those farmers who are in the end of the channel. But such a project makes sense only if they work all together - the water should be insulated from infiltration along the entire channel. It makes no sense to save it in the end of the channel when it is already all gone into the ground. It means that they need a clear organization of members within WUA and precise control of water use by each member. Such control does not exist, because right now in the absence of control they have different motivation for water usage : for some of them water is critically important, the others perceive it as a given.

In other words, the committee members agreed that results of this project can be quite controversial. And the technology itself will not solve the problem. Other structural changes are also needed at the level of the WUA, and at the level of state policy on water management.

The next project in Khorezm, which was attended by the committee members was the project of NGO KRASS on laser leveling of fields. Team of NGO, led by Professor N. Ibragimov, introduced the results of the project to the committee members. By the present moment an economic analysis of the results of using this technology has been completed and is being registered. Extracts from the given data are presented below for your information. At the moment the work on the detailed instruction on the use of laser leveling technology is almost completed. We hoped that the equipment which was given to two WUAs for usage during 2 years free of charge, will cause interest of the farmers, and they will purchase their own equipment for further use. This has not happened so far. Maybe it will happen in the future when they will be deprived of the equipment, which NGO KRASS is planning to transfer to other WUAs for them to familiarize with this technology. Perhaps other farmers will be interested in purchasing such equipment. Currently, there are many suppliers of such equipment. The equipment tested in Uzbekistan was supplied by the company Easy Farming from Pakistan. All contact details of the company can be found in our section "Partners". In the forthcoming publication you will get detailed information of how and where you can buy such equipment.

NGO KRASS also informed the committee members with the results of numerous studies conducted within the framework of the project.ZEF/Bonn - UNESCO - Urgench University. Perhaps in the near future, NGO will submit new project proposals on the developed and proven technologies of rational use of natural potential.

And now on the way to Karakalpakstan