Kazakhstan Upgrades Water Infrastructure to Reduce Transboundary Reliance
Kazakhstan has initiated a large-scale program to upgrade its water management infrastructure, focusing on the construction of new reservoirs. The project aims to accumulate billions of cubic meters of meltwater and reduce the country’s dependence on transboundary rivers.
In the Turkistan region, work on two new reservoirs with a combined capacity of 69.1 million cubic meters is scheduled for completion by the end of this year. The government is also preparing documentation for ten additional reservoirs. Five of these are planned for the Abai, Zhetysu, West Kazakhstan, and Karaganda regions, with the remaining five allocated to the Zhambyl, Akmola, Kyzylorda, and West Kazakhstan regions.
The program extends to existing hydraulic structures. Last year, five facilities underwent major reconstruction–the Kapshagay reservoir in the Turkistan region, the Kirovskoye reservoir in the West Kazakhstan region, the Charskoye reservoir in the Abai region, the Kyzylagash reservoir in the Zhetysu region, and the Albarboget dam in the Kostanay region. Modernization projects for an additional eighteen reservoirs are currently under development.
International financial institutions are contributing to the infrastructure projects. Five projects for reservoir construction and restoration, alongside nearly one hundred canal repair initiatives, are being prepared with the Islamic Development Bank. The Asian Development Bank is participating in the construction of the Yesil counter–regulator in the Akmola region. The World Bank is supporting a project to increase the North Aral Sea’s volume by reconstructing facilities in the Aral–Syr Darya basin. Furthermore, over 500 km of canals are set to be reconstructed by early 2026 with support from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
The modernization also includes drinking water supply systems. The commissioning of fifteen group water pipelines has provided centralized water access to 277 localities, supplying drinking water for the first time to 115,000 people. This year, twelve more facilities are planned for completion, which will provide quality water to 142 rural settlements with a population of approximately 540,000.
The state-owned enterprise Kazvodkhoz has undergone technical re-equipment, adding 576 units of specialized machinery out of a planned 757. This has facilitated the mechanized cleaning of over 1,800 km of irrigation canals and initiated an upgrade of pumping units on the Satpayev Canal.
The infrastructure campaign is expected to produce significant outcomes. Projections indicate the measures will lead to the accumulation of an additional 2.6 billion cubic meters of meltwater and floodwater, bring 295,000 hectares of new irrigated land into use, decrease dependence on transboundary water resources by 15%, and reduce water losses in irrigation canals from 47% to 35%.
