Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Alikhan Smailov held a meeting on the issue of providing agricultural producers in the southern regions of Kazakhstan with irrigation water in the coming growing season.

The ministers of ecology, geology and natural resources, agriculture, energy, as well as the leadership of the Kyzylorda, Turkistan and Zhambyl regions reported on the current situation in the Aral-Syrdarya basin.

Thus, this year, due to the ongoing cycle of low water, the volume of filling the Toktogul reservoir in the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic will not reach the last year's level. Given the need for Kyrgyzstan to meet its own water and energy needs, there are risks of reducing the volume of water discharged into the territory of Kazakhstan.

The Prime Minister instructed the ministries of ecology, geology and natural resources, as well as energy to take comprehensive measures to provide the southern regions of the Republic of Kazakhstan with irrigation water in the spring and summer.

Alikhan Smailov stressed the need for intensive negotiations with Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan to make mutually beneficial decisions on the use of transboundary river resources.

The Ministry of Agriculture was instructed to step up work on the introduction of water-saving technologies and other tools for the rational use of water resources in the agricultural sector.