Training workshop in Tashkent

From September 4 through 10, the China Project in cooperation with IWMI, Hydroengeo and the Uzbek State Committee on Geology and Mineral Resources held an international workshop at Tashkent, Uzbekistan, on “Water resources management and sustainable development strategies in arid regions under a changing climate”. The goal of the workshop was to communicate results and methods developed in the China project to Central Asian colleagues. The workshop was attended by 35 participants from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, India, and Nepal.

While in China, India and Pakistan overpumping is the main groundwater problem, in Central Asia salinization due to too high groundwater tables is the most prominent question. In both situations, however, the management involves the control of groundwater tables to stay either above or below a red line. So most tools of groundwater management can be used in both instances. The oping of the workshop was attended by the Swiss ambassador to Uzbekistan as well as the vice chairman of the State Committee on Geology and Mineral, resources. After general overview talks by the director of Hydroengeo, Dr. Botirzhon Abdullaev, the representative of IWMI Central Asia, Kakhramon Jumaboev, and Professor Kinzelbach, lectures on methods were presented.

The lectures were accompanied by hands-on exercises. The methods included groundwater budgeting by box models and numerical groundwater models, crop and irrigation mapping by remote sensing, data assimilation, and an irrigation calculator for determining crop water demand as well as the integration of tools in a decision support platform. On a one-day excursion, participants could visit hydraulic engineering structures and installations for water saving irrigation. The workshop was rated as a success by the participants.