Water on the map of Central Asia as the most strategic resource

Nieuwsbericht09-09-2026 | 07:55

For Central Asia the challenge is no longer simply knowing how much water is available today. Governments increasingly need to know where it is, who is using it, how much is being lost and whether there will be enough in the years ahead.

Across the region countries are replacing fragmented, paper-based records with digital water management systems.

Kazakhstan is building a national water resources information system.
Uzbekistan is introducing digital tracking of actual water consumption.
Kyrgyzstan is updating its state water cadastre.
Tajikistan is developing a comprehensive national water information system.

The shift is significant: Central Asia is moving from counting water to managing it.

Kazakhstan: building a single picture

Kazakhstan is developing a National Water Resources Information System to bring together data on surface and groundwater, hydraulic infrastructure and other water assets.

The system is expected to incorporate satellite monitoring and, eventually, artificial intelligence. Its purpose is to calculate the national water balance, assess demand from households and the economy, and forecast future conditions.

Essil river in Astana, Kazakhstan — Beeld: © LVVN Astana / Astana, Kazakhstan
Astana, Kazakhstan

A digital platform already provides data on rivers, lakes, reservoirs, hydrological monitoring stations and the country's eight water management basins.

But digitalization is only as useful as the data behind it. Kazakhstan is therefore also focusing on the accuracy and timeliness of information supplied by water agencies.

Uzbekistan: tracking where the water goes

Uzbekistan is placing greater emphasis on actual water use.

Its State Water Cadastre is intended to consolidate data from different government agencies, while the Suv hisobi (“Water Accounting”) system will track water consumption and provide users with digital information.

The system is also being linked to the country's Digital Agriculture platform, allowing water use to be assessed alongside irrigated land, crops, and water-use limits.

The question is therefore shifting from “How much water do we have?” to “How much are we using, where, and for what?”

Kyrgyzstan: connecting the data

Kyrgyzstan is taking a similar approach, seeking to bring fragmented water data into a more integrated system.

Previous initiatives aimed to connect the state water cadastre with information on irrigation systems, water user associations, water supplies, hydrometeorology, and hydrogeology.

Geospatial mapping and data on water bodies are already part of the country's digital infrastructure. The next step is to update the rules governing the state water cadastre and water-use monitoring.

For a country heavily dependent on irrigation, having a single, reliable picture of its water resources is critical to managing agriculture and infrastructure.

Rivers don’t recognize borders

All these projects are driven by the same underlying reality. Central Asian rivers cross national borders. Water used or stored in one country can directly affect conditions in another.

That makes a national water cadastre more than an internal management tool. It is also a foundation for negotiations between countries over water allocation, reservoir operations, environmental releases, and agricultural needs.

However this creates another challenge: data from different countries must be comparable.

If countries use different measurement methods, data formats, and reporting periods, it becomes difficult to build a common picture. The region does not necessarily need a single database, but it does need common standards for sharing information on transboundary river basins.