Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev on Friday expressed concern over the construction of the Qosh Tepa irrigation canal in northern Afghanistan, noting it could “radically change the water regime and balance” in Central Asia.
Mirziyoyev made the remarks at a meeting of the Council of Heads of the Founder States of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea in Tajikistan capital Dushanbe.
“You know very well that the Afghan side is actively constructing the canal. Its commissioning could radically change the water regime and balance in Central Asia,” he said.
Mirziyoyev called for setting up a joint working group “to study all aspects of the construction” of the Qosh Tepa canal and “its impact on the water regime of the Amu Darya with the involvement of research institutes of our countries.”
He also proposed to consider the issue of involving representatives of Afghanistan into the regional dialogue on the sharing of water resources.
The Qosh Tepa Canal is a canal being built in northern Afghanistan to divert water from the Amu Darya River. The main canal is expected to be 285 km long and the overall initiative seeks to convert 550,000 hectares of desert into farmland.
The Islamic Emirate has made the canal a priority project and the construction began in early 2022. Images so far demonstrate that from April 2022 to February 2023, more than 100 km of canal was excavated.
