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“Young Scientist” . # 28 (370) . July 2021
Economics and Management
Features of regulation of existing methods of pricing of irrigation services
in Tajikistan, on the example of Asht district, Sughd region
Rahimov Khurshed, student master's degree program
Kazakh-German University (Almaty, Kazakhstan)
This article will discuss the effectiveness of using pricing methods for the supply of irrigation water in the Republic of Tajikistan,
using the example of Asht district, Sughd region, where a large number of pumps are used to irrigate arable land, including
cascade ones, where the number of lifts reaches up to six. The article provides examples of the ineffectiveness of using traditional
pricing methods and the features of the regulation of these methods and the transition to new economic conditions. Based on the
fact that in 2019 the total area of land according to the State Committee for Land Management and Geodesy of the Republic of
Tajikistan, arable land in Tajikistan amounted to 672682 hectares, and of this 381397 hectares (56.7 %) are irrigated by gravity
and 291,285 hectares (43.3) with the help of pumps to irrigate this amount of land in total, 393 pumps were installed throughout
the country, 337 of which were in working condition in 2019 (Data taken from unpublished materials of the Agency for Land
Reclamation and Irrigation under the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan). Therefore, also taking into account increases
in all other prices and costs that affect the cost of the resource itself, the transition to new efficient pricing is an integral part of
the delivery of irrigation water.
I
ntroduction
In the process of water use, as in other areas, there are
several participants and stages. One is water suppliers, who
may own wells or reservoirs, or have access and rights to
water. Suppliers have time-dependent private costs of water
delivery, and in order for this process to proceed without
delays and for water in good quality and on time to reach
water users, these costs need to be covered on time and in
full (David Zilberman, 2005) [1]. Indeed, all over the world,
most of the renewable resources of fresh water are used for
irrigation. Since the demand for water increases with an
increase in living standards and population growth, and also,
since the prospects for water withdrawal (withdrawal) are
limited in some regions and are absent in others, the course
of water policy remains open — increasing the efficiency of
water use. This requires taking into account the full cost of
water, and the way this is achieved inevitably leads to some
form of water pricing. However, water policymakers are far
from agreeing with economists as to what constitutes the
«right» price for water in any given circumstance and how
that price should be charged.
In the past, most cities and utilities in the world provided
water to their customers almost free of charge because water was
considered a basic necessity and because water was relatively
cheap in price and abundant in quantity. But now that much
larger communities need services, the only way to ensure that
everyone has access to this basic need is to ration it in some
way. And perhaps the best way to use water for the best and
most valuable purposes is to set the price of water and build
appropriate tariff structures to achieve different social, political
and economic goals in different situations (P. Rogers et al, 2002)
[2]. As the notion that water is a scarce economic commodity is
gaining ground. Consequently, the development of water pricing
mechanisms is given high priority among various instruments
for effective water management (Bjornlund and McKay, 1998)
[3].
Since irrigated agriculture is the main consumer of water
worldwide (Johansson et al., 2002) [4], the development of
efficient pricing mechanisms for irrigation water is especially
relevant for sustainable water management.
Despite the extensive and varied literature on irrigation water
pricing (Boworth et al., 2002; Molle and Berkoff, 2007; Hellegers
and Perry, 2004) [5,6,7], it remains a challenge to determine the
«right» price or economic cost of irrigation water. Very often,
tariffs do not even cover the full cost of delivery, and sometimes
the cost of water is lower than the cost of delivery. But, and the
fundamentals of economics require that the price of a service
be at least the same as the cost of providing this service. Peter
Rogers (1998) argued that sustainable and efficient use of water
requires a tariff to match not only the costs of supplying water
(operating, maintenance and capital costs), but also alternative
costs such as economic, external and environmental costs. The
recent World Water Commission strongly supported and agreed
that the single most immediate and important action to be
taken is the need to establish the full cost of water services and
move towards a single price for water services (World Water
Commission, 2000, p. 33) [8].
Thus, the only solution is integrated water resources
management. Since when economic, legal and environmental
aspects complement each other, then higher prices will increase
the equity, efficiency and sustainability of the resource (P. Rogers
et al, 2002) [2].
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