CASE STUDY ON WATER SUPPLY AND SANITATION IN UZBEKISTAN

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CASE STUDYON WATER SUPPLY AND SANITATION IN
UZBEKISTAN
AYSE KUDAT THE WORLD BANK 1998
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CASE STUDYUSMAN-YUSUPOV DISTRICT (ZHEYNOV)
SHIRKAT
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Historical Background
There are 21 settlements within the Kashkadarya
region that were established by Arabs. Among them
are Arabaul, Arabon, Arabkhona, Arabsoy, etc. 50
km to the West of Karshi, the capital of the
Kashkadarya region, on the territory of Usman
Yusupov administrative district. One of these
settlements is the Djeynau shirkat. In Arabic,
zhina means we came. In 758-780, Arabs actively
resettled on the territory of Central Asia they
saw their mission as bringing the Word of the
Prophet to the region. From that time and up to
the early 20th century, Arabs, including those
who settled in Djeynau village, have mainly dealt
with religious education, worshipping, livestock
and crop raising.
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Historical Background
In the late 19th - early 20th centuries, when
there was a transition from Arabic writing to
Latin, and than to Cyrillic, many Djeynau
inhabitants could not learn new writing. By the
Soviet standard they were considered to be
illiterate (even though they could fluently read
the Koran). Only in the middle of the 20th
century the population reached the middle of the
national level of literacy. As old-aged people
recall, in school they spoke and studied in
Uzbek, but at home they spoke Arabic. During the
Soviet period, most of Arabs (probably
representing many other nationalities) changed
their nationality to the titular one - Uzbek.
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Administration,population and agriculture
559 families lived in Djeynau, and its population
was 2518 people - 1339 men and 1179 women. About
55 families were Uzbek. In 1934, Djeynau became a
kolkhoz. In 1964, the Kasan and Besharyk
districts were united into the Kasan district. 6
kolkhozes including Djeynau were united into the
separate Karshi district. The population of the
Djeynau kishlak board was at that time 1,038
households (8,600 people). Since 1971, with the
arrival of irrigation, the district began
cultivation of cotton and the total harvest for
the district was 89,620 tons. Specialist builders
came to the village some of them remained in
Djeynau. The population of Djeynau in 1971
increased to 13,442 people (1,601 households).
According to experts, in 1972 the cropping
conditions improved and the harvest was plentiful.
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Historical background of water use
Prior to the construction of irrigation system,
the population of Djeynau concentrated on
livestock and crop raising. Crops of grain,
cotton and melon were less important and were
located in zones of natural irrigation, which
received humidity during the spring high water.
Bulls were the major labor force bulls were used
for ploughing land, and sowing was done by hand.
There were no reservoirs on the territory of the
district then. From December to April rainwater,
melt-water and torrential water ran by gravity to
fields along the riverbed of the Kashkadarya
River and small rivulets.
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Historical background of water use
The lack of a reliable system of water supply
resulted in huge losses for dehkans. During
droughts in 1956-57 there were almost no
precipitation at all. The Djeynau farmers
suffered huge losses 12,533 ha of wheat was lost
in the district. In the early 1960s, the weather
sharply worsened again cold winters and hot
summers did much harm to the village. In 1961
alone, 5,898 sheep, 91 pigs, 51 goats, 27 goats,
and 7,961 hens died. Also, 214 ha of corn and 73
ha of hop-clover were lost to drought. In
1961-62, no cotton was grown at all in the farm.
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Historical background of water use
In summertime, to allocate the water of the
Kashkadarya river, the population applied the
system of social contract with kishlak dwellers
living upstream. Village mirab agreed that on
certain days, the upstream inhabited locations
would not take water and the Djeynau fields would
receive their allocation of water, sufficient
for irrigation. This technique of increasing the
dose of watering based on a social contract is
characteristic not only Djeynau, but for all the
region and is called avandoz. As such, the
tradition of equitable water distribution existed
and served as the basis of an informal water user
association.
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Historical background of water use
The shortage of potable water and water for other
domestic needs has always been a very serious
problem. It appears that the shortage and low
quality of domestic water have seriously affected
the living standard of the kishlak population
morbidity was very high, every year many children
using water from open sources died of
gastrointestinal infections more than of any
other cause.
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Land reclamation and construction of the Karshi
Cascade
In summertime, to allocate the water of the
Kashkadarya river, the population applied the
system of social contract with kishlak dwellers
living upstream. Village mirab agreed that on
certain days, the upstream inhabited locations
would not take water and the Djeynau fielIn spite
of the fact that a powerful organization
Karshistroy was established for steppes
reclamation, old people of Djeynau remember that
they had to do many types of work by hand,
especially at the outset. Before that time,
social and water infrastructures on the territory
of Djeynau were embryonic fields were naturally
irrigated during the periods of high water. The
Karshistroy is the culture of our region.
Everything we received, everything we achieved is
due to the Karshistroy, due to the land
reclamation. But for it, we would have walked
barefoot ". (A dweller of Djeynau)
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Unexpected problems
The state policy with regard to land reclamation
and harvesting cotton from these lands resulted
in numerous technological abuses problem when
constructing the drainage system Many of the
planned measures on drainage were not fulfilled,
and the control of the quality of the drainage
system construction was very low. Builders,
trying to bring lands into operation quickly,
often constructed only control wells of the
drainage system in the fields and did not put in
drainage pipes. The commission came, looked,
checked on the beginning and the end of the
drainage system, and then signed the acceptance
documents. But there was nothing in the middle!
(A shirkat member)
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Unexpected problems
The consequences of this strategic mistake became
evident 15 years after the beginning of system
operation. Since 1985-1986, the ground-water
level began to significantly increase, and the
situation with water supply worsened. The
former head of shirkat recalls "We ourselves
killed the land Instead of 1200 m3/ha, we
irrigated land with 5-6,000 m3/ha. Three pumps
conveyed water from the Mirishkor canal only for
our sovkhoz and there was great water
replenishment from rivers, and now we have only 2
operating pumps. We were given as much water as
we asked, not as much as was stipulated in
standards. We used to say Give us water and we
will increase the productivity of cotton
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Unexpected problems
The deterioration of the Amudarya water quality
has also aggravated the situation. The people of
Djeynay remember that during the first years of
their arrival one could safely drink Amudarya
water. Development of agriculture and industry
upstream of the Amudarya river (on the territory
of the Vahsh and Surkhandarya valleys) increased
water salinity and then, soil salinity.
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Unexpected problems
People say that non-governmental organizations
are quite capable of coping with cleaning
drainage system. And if private enterprises
providing services on drainage system cleaning
should emerge, their services will always be in
great demand. However, these enterprises must
have the necessary machinery and specialists
otherwise, it will not be possible to maintain
the drainage systems.
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Unexpected problems
The second relevant problem is the need for
urgent rehabilitation of the irrigation system
and reduction of seepage loss. The situation is
that even concrete canals, which are 160 km in
length in Djeynau, are affected by salt attacks
and are already collapsing. The farm cannot
afford purchasing and installing new canals at
its own expense as just one ton of metal costs
about 500,000 sums.
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Unexpected problems
Illegal connections to irrigation systems
negatively affect the whole farm when a leakage
or an illegal connection is detected, a water
engineer disconnects the water until losses are
eliminated. But during planting, every single day
of watering is vital, and thus social problems
are acute.
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Tomorka (house plot)
For many years, a tomorka was the major source of
income and food. In this community almost 1,020
ha of land are under tomorkas (the total area for
crop raising is 5,200 ha). As such they require
substantial amounts of water. Despite the
illegality, people sometimes open the water in
tomorka canals, but such attempts are almost
immediately restrained. In this connection, there
have been repeated conflicts in the last two
years.
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Tomorka (house plot)
"There is not enough water for watering cotton,
so how can we give it for watering tomorka?
Cotton is a basis of our economy, that is why we
deny giving water for personal plots. The shirkat
spends the money all have earned builds
hospitals, gas pipeline, etc. And no profit was
left for an individual? He will water his 7
sotkas (1 sotka 10 m2), but all he grows goes
for his personal need. That is why the shirkat
must receive water first". (The Chairman of
Shirkat)
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Potable Water
"We demand people to pay for water, but they
refuse to pay because water is supplied extremely
rarely once every 2-3 days and for very a very
brief time". (The Chairman of Shirkat) "Problems
with potable water in Djeynau began 5-6 years
ago before that we could turn on the tap and
water would run". (A housewife)
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Lessons learned
Principles of water use formed on the territory
of the Karshi steppe are the result of a
traditional forms of cooperation. Since the main
task of people living on this territory was
surviving in conditions of insufficient water,
following the established rules was and still
remains obligatory for all independent of their
ethnic origins, be they Uzbeks or Arabs. In spite
of the fact that the existing system of water
resource administration is intrinsically
administrative and extremely dependent on
decisions of many officials operating at
different levels, in practice, people try to keep
centuries-old principles. Certainly, nowadays
they do not have to negotiate when and how much
water a downstream kishlak will receive this is
the prerogative of the rayvodkhoz. Nevertheless,
the system of administration may not cover every
single person, and here traditional systems of
cooperation and control are applied. It is
noteworthy that recent drought, along with
insufficient state financing, in many instances
provoked a return to an earlier time and
traditions when people felt keenly the
preciousness of water and this led them to rely
on themselves and on local level cooperation.
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Lessons learned
Undoubtedly, the system of administration of
water distribution in Djeynau (as well as in the
whole steppe) needs to be changed. And the
centuries-old experience of water use can teach
one of the most important lessons, which consists
of a very simple dependence on the idea of local
control. It does not matter to whom water
formally belongs, whether it is ample or
insufficient in any year, whether its supply to
fields is paid fully by agricultural operators or
by the state, one can rationally use water
without any conflicts only by taking collective
decisions at the level of ordinary users as it
was done on this land from time immemorial.