Groundwater Management in the Sughd Region, Tajikistan (GWMP)


The project aims to enhance livelihoods and social cohesion in Sughd region by promoting sustain-able groundwater management. Aligned with Sustainable Development Goal 6, it will improve poli-cies, institutional capacity, and water usage practices for long-term sustainability in Tajikistan. This unique Swiss initiative will leverage the region's untapped and scientifically unexplored potential to optimize groundwater resources, paving the way for sustainable development.

Región/País Tema Período Presupuesto
Tayikistán
Agua
Preservación de los recursos hídricos
Abastecimiento de agua
Saneamiento de agua
Política del sector del agua
01.07.2023 - 31.12.2028
CHF  5’500’000
Contexto

Tajikistan is known for its abundant freshwater resources, with groundwater making up 10% of its renewable water supply.

Groundwater is crucial for water, sanitation, in-dustry, ecosystems, and especially agriculture, a key source of employment in the country. How-ever, human activities like unsustainable water extraction, poor farming practices, and inefficient water use are depleting and polluting the re-source.

Groundwater management in Tajikistan faces challenges due to weak institutional capacities, fragmented responsibilities, and poor coordina-tion among key stakeholders. This leads to inef-fective regulation and management, low public awareness, and insufficient investment, hinder-ing progress in protecting and utilizing groundwa-ter resources effectively.

Objetivos National and sub-national state institutions en-sure a sustainable and equitable use of ground-water resources while safeguarding ecosystem health and enhancing climate resilience through conjunctive water management and participa-tory governance in the Tajik Syr Darya Basin Zone.
Grupos destinarios The project will directly benefit around 790’000 people living in the pilot groundwater areas of Kamishkurgan and Nau-Ispisar in the Sughd region. Indirectly, the project will impact the entire pop-ulation of the Tajik Syr Darya River Basin, total-ling around 2.1 million people, of whom 70% reside in rural areas. The project will strengthen the counterparts from the state and private sector (i.e., farmers and drilling service providers) including academia and research.
Efectos a medio plazo

Outcome 1: The policy and legal framework di-rects groundwater management and govern-ance roles and responsibilities and enables sus-tainable and climate-resilient conjunctive water management.

Outcome 2: The state institutions in Sughd manage groundwater resources sustainably in line with conjunctive water management and and Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) principles.

Outcome 3: Water users use groundwater effi-ciently, equitably, and in line with principles for sustainable and conjunctive use.

Resultados

Resultados previstos:  

  • A national policy dialogue on groundwater management and governance is established and national strategy, conducive legislation, and related guidelines are developed
  • Roles and responsibilities of the state institu-tions are clarified, and priority reorganisation measures are approved
  • Improved and digitalised groundwater data storage, analysis and sharing available
  • Groundwater expertise in academic and edu-cational institutions, as well as state and pri-vate sector is developed
  • Interstate dialogues on transboundary water cooperation include issues of transboundary groundwater cooperation
  • The trained and regulated drilling sector in the basin operates in line with groundwater legislation
  • Water users' awareness of efficient, sustain-able, equitable groundwater and conjunctive water management is raised


Resultados de las fases anteriores:   N/A


Dirección / Officina Federal responsable COSUDE
Contrapartes del proyecto Contraparte del contrato
Sector privado
Organización suiza sin fines de lucro
  • HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation
  • Sector privado suizo

Contraparte de la implémentación
Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation

Coordinación con otros proyectos y actores The project will engage with a diverse array of development partners and programs, including Swiss-funded national (e.g., National Water Re-sources Management Project (NWRM)) and re-gional initiatives (e.g., Blue Peace CA, Regional GW Management in CA), the Water User Per-mits in KG, NWRM UZ, Cryospheric Observa-tion Modelling for Improved Adaptation in CA (CROMO-ADAPT) and others like Green Cen-tral Asia II (GCA II) regional programme and the Climate Sensitive Water Resources Manage-ment in Central Asia. This collaboration will strengthen complementarity, foster synergy, and enhance partnership and coordination, ulti-mately leading to a more effective impact on im-plemented activities. The project will also exchange and contribute to groundwater agenda through participation in the Réseau Learning journey on groundwater. Moreover, the project will learn from relevant activities of UNECE Water Convention in the context of Na-tional Policy Dialogues (NPD).
Presupuesto Fase en curso Presupuesto suizo CHF    5’500’000 Presupuesto actual suizo ya emitido CHF    1’310’745 Total del proyecto desde la primera fase Presupuesto suizo CHF   288’119 Presupuesto inclusive contrapartes del proyecto CHF   15’400’000