Kazakhstan cuts water use by 874 mln m³ through new technologies

In his Address to the Nation, the President noted that the rollout of water-saving technologies had been progressing slowly and had yet to produce meaningful results. He also instructed authorities to bring in leading international companies and pointed out that some regions continued cultivating water-intensive crops despite previously identified risks.

As part of efforts to implement these instructions, the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation introduced a comprehensive support system for farmers. Among the key measures was an increase in reimbursement for the purchase and installation of water-saving systems from 50% to 80%.

In addition, a differentiated subsidy mechanism for irrigation water has been introduced. For farms using water-saving technologies, subsidies have been increased to 85%.

By the end of 2025, water-saving technologies had been applied across 543,500 ha, resulting in savings of 874 million m³ of irrigation water.

The country surpassed its annual target of introducing water-saving technologies across 150,000 ha in both 2024 and 2025, reaching 153,000 ha in 2024 and 154,000 ha in 2025.

Kazakhstan aims to expand the use of water-saving technologies to 1.3 million ha by 2030, a move expected to save up to 2.2 billion m³ of water annually.

Kazakhstan has earmarked 214.6 billion tenge in investment subsidies for water-saving initiatives in 2026–2028, four times more than during the previous three-year period.

The country is also home to five domestic plants specializing in the production of sprinkler systems and drip irrigation equipment.

Water-saving efforts are also being introduced in industry. Under the new Water Code, enterprises are required to gradually transition to recycled and recirculating water supply systems within seven years. These measures are expected to increase the share of reused water in industry to 28%.

Water-efficient irrigation systems are also being introduced in cities and major populated areas, with authorities aiming to fully transition the irrigation of green spaces covering 10,200 ha to these technologies by 2030.

Earlier, Qazinform News Agency reported that Kazakhstan is building energy storage systems with a total capacity of 1.6 GW.