Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, June 21
By Huseyn Hasanov– Trend:
In Turkmenistan, more than $500 million are spent annually to support and develop ecological environment and various environmental and water projects, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow said at a high-level international conference in Dushanbe on Wednesday, Turkmen state news agency dovlet khabarlari (TDH) reported.
A forum dedicated to the UN Decade of Action "Water for Sustainable Development in 2018-2028" was held in the capital of Tajikistan. The code of Turkmenistan "About water" is the basis for a comprehensive program to develop methods for the rational use of water resources, their conservation and restoration, protection against pollution, contamination and depletion.
Adaptation measures are also being implemented in the country to restore forests and improve land use to mitigate climate impact. Extensive forest belts have been created around towns and settlements with the use of progressive water-saving irrigation methods.
As an illustrative example, the head of state introduced a large-scale project to set up artificial lake Altyn Asyr (Golden Age) in the Karakum Desert to store collector-drainage water from irrigated lands of all regions of the country. Its first stage was commissioned in 2009.
The construction of a complex hydraulic engineering system allows solving urgent environmental, economic and social issues. Among them is improvement of the meliorative state of agricultural lands, the protection of soils from degradation, the return of thousands of hectares of ground flooded with drainage waters, the cultivation of salt-tolerant crops, irrigation of pastures, development of fisheries, creation of a water reserve.
Turkmen president also said that modern factories for production of drinking water are being built in the capital and regions.