How a Simple Tool is Reducing Conflict and Preserving Water in Uzbekistan | IWMI Success Stories

To be a successful farmer, you must have four key things: A crop, land, willing hands, and a reliable supply of water. Without water, land will lose its richness, crops won’t grow, and willing hands will leave. Water is vital.

Nowhere is water more precious than in an arid country such as Uzbekistan, where agriculture consumes some 90% of the water supply. But while scarce water resources must be distributed fairly, allocating water among individual farmers, agricultural regions, and households can prove to be a complicated undertaking.

One way of attempting to ensure fair distribution of water is through Water Consumer Associations (WCAs), which also operate and maintain on-farm irrigation networks. However, what happens if the allocation of scarce water resources is disputed, and farmers argue that they are being overcharged and underserved?

Smartsticks monitor exactly how much water is discharged to farmers. As a result, significant improvements in water accounting have been made in Uzbekistan, while conflicts between WCAs have decreased and food production has increased.