BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec. 15
By Klavdiya Romakayeva - Trend:
A unified electronic information system will be launched in Uzbekistan to keep records of the consumption of electrical energy and the volume of waste water in the country at the operating 1,688 pumping stations of the Ministry of Water Management, Trend reports citing Norma legal and information portal.
According to the document, it is planned to increase the rate of introduction of water-saving technologies in Uzbekistan by five times at the expense of state subsidies. The corresponding decree was signed by the President of Uzbekistan on December 11.
The document provides for the introduction of economical irrigation systems on 230,000 hectares in 2021, including:
- drip irrigation technologies - on 160,000 hectares of cotton fields, 30,000 hectares with fruit crops, 15,000 hectares of vineyards and 5,000 hectares with other crops;
- sprinkler irrigation technologies - on 14,00 hectares with grain crops, 2,000 hectares of vegetables and melons, 2,000 hectares of forage crops;
- discrete irrigation technologies - on 600 hectares of cotton fields.
Another 200,000 hectares of agricultural land will be leveled with laser equipment for uniform irrigation.
State subsidies in the amount of 1.5 trillion soums ($145 million) will be allocated to agricultural producers to cover part of the cost of introducing water-saving technologies and to cover part of the interest costs on bank loans allocated for their purchase and construction.
Agricultural producers who have purchased automated land-planning units with a laser installation, manufactured in Uzbekistan, will be covered by 30 percent of their cost from the state budget.
At the same time, subsidies will be allocated with the condition of applying water-saving technologies for at least five years. Land areas on which water-saving technologies have been introduced cannot be optimized for at least five years, the document says.
A system of transparent online monitoring of electricity consumption and the volume of waste water at one pumping station of the Ministry of Water Resources system will be implemented as an experiment until April 1, 2021 with the introduction of information technology without human intervention.
Starting from the 2021/2022 academic year, a system of training, retraining and advanced training of specialists in the implementation and application of water-saving technologies will be introduced in professional educational institutions.
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