Effictiveness of Water Resources Use in Aral Sea Basin and Lower Reaches of the Amu Darya River

Natural-climatic conditions of Uzbekistan, the limited area of lands suitable for cropping and limited water resources force to search more effective and useful ways of water-land resources usage. An anthropogenic desertification brings to complication of the problem above. About 15% of a crop is lost because of a unsuccessful ameliorative condition of the lands. This situation is more serious in the lower reaches of the Amu Darya river. Efficiency of the irrigated lands in Karakalpakstan 4.5 times lower than in the country, in the Khorezm area – 1.4 times. The parameters of disease connected to water quality have grown and there is a sanitary-and-epidemiologic condition get worse frequently. Alongside with the general problems, situation can be complicated with water shortage and a drought. Hydrological mode of the Amu Darya River is not stability. Extreme situations such as flood (1994, 1995 is observed, 2003–2004) and dry become more frequent (2000, 2001). In the Amu Darya river basin limited water division is carried out to manage of water distribution taking into account water quality. The structure of water consumption in a lower reaches of Amu Darya is various. In the Khorezm area the agriculture consumes 97.5% from the taken water, for municipal services − 1.8, fish economy − 0.7%. We have developed an information-program complex which includes:

•  Model of water resources management

•  A database

•  User interface

The model allows calculating various scenarios of the Amu Darya river water resources management considering its quantity and quality in imitation and optimization modes.