ECONOMIC VALUATION OF WATER LOSSES IN IRRIGATION CANALS IN UZBEKISTAN

This article examines the economic significance of water losses in Uzbekistan’s irrigation-canal system using verified official and institutional evidence from the Government Portal of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the World Bank, and FAO AQUASTAT. The irrigation and drainage sector is economically strategic because agriculture accounts for about 90 percent of national water use and more than 95 percent of crop production depends on irrigation (World Bank, 2023a). The article synthesizes three complementary sets of evidence. First, it documents the structural context of the irrigation sector: about 4.3 million hectares are equipped for irrigation, around 2.4 million hectares depend on pumping, and pumping stations consume about 7.5–8.0 billion kWh of electricity annually (World Bank, 2023a). Second, it reviews direct estimates of canal-related losses. The Government of Uzbekistan reported in 2023 that, on average, 14 billion cubic metres of water, or 36 percent, are lost every year in natural-cover irrigation systems without economic benefit (Government of Uzbekistan, 2023). The World Bank (2023b) also noted that some systems report conveyance losses as high as 60 percent. Third, the article values these losses economically. A World Bank assessment estimated that the current level of irrigation-water loss corresponds to about US$1.1 billion per year, or roughly 1.79 percent of GDP (World Bank, 2024). Based on these official figures, the article derives an implied value of approximately US$0.079 per cubic metre of water lost. Under this benchmark, reducing 25, 50, 75, and 100 percent of the currently reported 14 billion m³ annual loss would correspond to about US$275 million, US$550 million, US$825 million, and US$1.1 billion of annual value recovery, respectively. The paper concludes that canal-loss reduction is not only a water-saving objective but also a productivity, fiscal, and climate-policy priority.