1.1.2.WATER USE In 1994, the total annual water withdrawal for agricultural, domestic and industrial purposes was estimated at 58.05km3. This amount included withdrawal from surface water (46.16km³), fromgroundwater (7.39km3) and withdrawal from return flow collector-drainage for irrigation purposes, estimated at 4.5km³. Requirements for fisheries were estimated at 530 million m³. The total water withdrawal increased steadily from 45.5km³ in 1975 to 62.8km³ in 1985, mainly because of irrigation expansion. 1.2.WATER QUALITY, ECOSYSTEMS AND HUMAN HEALTH The shrinkage of the Aral Sea has resulted in growing concentrations of chemical pesticides and natural salts, which are then blown from the increasingly exposed lake bed and contribute to desertification. Other environmental problems include water pollution from industrial wastes and the heavy use of fertilizers and pesticides, which is the cause of many human health disorders; increasing soil salination; and soil contamination from buried nuclear processing and agricultural chemicals, including DDT. Irrigation has created serious environmental problems in Uzbekistan, the most dramatic effect being the shrinking of the Aral Sea. According to a World Bank report, the main environmental impacts of irrigation in the Aral Sea basin include: -the loss of fish resources in the Aral Sea, due to an increase in salinity and chemical pollution; -land degradation through waterlogging and salination of irrigated land; -crop diseases and pests, due especially to the cotton monoculture; -adverse health effects on people and animals, due to wind-blown chemicals and the poor quality of water; -possible local climatic change. Drainage water is the principal carrier of environmental pollution, since it contains the results of mineralization and residues from pesticides.

(Water RIsk Filter)