Māris kļaviņŠ, azamat azizov, JĀnis zaļoksnis environment, pollution, development: the case of uzbekistan

3. WATER RESOURCES OF UZBEKISTAN

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ENVIRONMENT, POLLUTION, DEVELOPMENT:  THE CASE OF UZBEKISTAN
Freshwater has a variety of uses. According to the UN data, the 
household use of water accounts for 12% of water consumption, 
8% is consumed by the power sector and industry, and agriculture 
uses nearly 70%. In agriculture, water is used for the daily intake 
of livestock, watering and irrigation of fields. For a better harvest, 
farmers have turned to improved irrigation methods in many places. 
In Spain, for example, 14% of irrigated agricultural lands provide 
over 60% of the total agricultural produce. Because of the irrigation 
of agricultural lands, surface water resources are running short in 
certain places, groundwater stores are being depleted, and salt-water 
intrusion would make freshwater unsuitable for human consumption. 
Climate change and drier summers in central Asia and elsewhere in 
the world have increased the use of water resources; therefore, water 
now has to be imported to the places which never previously have 
suffered from water shortage. Scientists consider that the pledge of 
the EU countries to increase the amount of biofuel up to 10% of the 
total amount of vehicular fuel by 2020 will result in a substantial 
increase in water consumption for agricultural needs.
Natural waters are categorized according to their overall level 
of mineralization (the proportion of mineral substances dissolved in 
water). The main types of water are the following: freshwater (its 
overall concentration of salts is up to 1 g/l), brackish water (1-10 g/l), 
saline water (10-35 g/l) and brine (35 g/l and more). 
Freshwater makes a small part of all the water on the Earth – 
approximately 3%. Two thirds of freshwater is accumulated as ice 
and snow, one third is underground water, while rivers and lakes 
make just a very small portion of the total volume of freshwater on 
the Earth (Figure 3.1, Table 3.1).
Soil (0.41%)
Underground 
waters  (20.58%)
Glaciers and icecaps (78.19%)
Rivers and lakes (0.82%)
Freshwater
Soil (0.01%)
Rivers and lakes (0.02%)
Underground waters (0.50%)
Glaciers and icecaps (1.90%)
The World Ocean (97.57%)
Figure 3.1. 
Distribution 
of water resources on 
the Earth

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3. Water resources of Uzbekistan