Starting March 1, officers of the Water Facilities Safety and Water Use Inspectorate under the Ministry of Water Resources will be equipped with body cameras and drones. This was announced by the chief of the Inspectorate Rustam Rakhimov told the Uzbekistan 24 channel.
This move will reportedly step up oversight of the targeted use of water-saving technologies, as outlined by the president at a government meeting on February 3. Monitoring is planned to be conducted nationwide and will involve 13 territorial divisions of the inspectorate.
"The goal has been set to save up to 5 billion cubic meters of water annually through the implementation of water-saving technologies and enhanced oversight. We are committed to achieving this goal," stated Rustam Rakhimov.
Smart water meters, integrated with the Suv Khisobi (Water Metering) information system, are planned to be installed on lands where rice is grown and fish farms are established.
Irrigation using traditional methods in areas where such technologies have been implemented through subsidies will be considered unauthorized water use without these technologies.
By 2028, water-saving technologies are planned to be implemented on 930,000 hectares, bringing the total area to 3.5 million hectares.
The chairman of the Senate Committee on Agrarian, Water Management, and Ecology, previously Anvar Tuychiev stated that agriculture accounts for almost 90% of freshwater used in Uzbekistan, and that water consumption per hectare is 2-2.5 times higher than in technologically advanced countries (the global average is approximately 65%).
