IRRIGATION AND LAND RECLAMATION IN THE SURKHANDARYA REGION: HISTORICAL TRENDS AND OUTCOMES

Abstract

This paper assesses the socio-ecological trajectory of irrigation and land-reclamation (melioration) development in the Surkhandarya region of southern Uzbekistan from the early twentieth to the early twenty-first century. Using a mixed-methods approach that combines a quantitative reconstruction of hydraulic infrastructure with documentary and policy analysis, the study quantifies the build-out of the reservoir–canal–pump system and evaluates its environmental costs. The findings show that the construction of large storage reservoirs — notably the South Surkhan reservoir (commissioned in 1967, design capacity 800 million m³) — together with energy-intensive machine canals such as the Amu-Zang system, enabled the reclamation of tens of thousands of hectares of desert and steppe and turned the region into a cotton-producing hub. However, this hydraulic expansion also generated secondary soil salinization, reservoir-bank erosion, and a structural dependence on high-lift pumping, embedding the region within the wider Amu Darya basin and Aral Sea crisis. The paper argues that the contemporary transition toward digital water-resource monitoring, water-saving technologies and transboundary cooperation must be informed by this historical socio-ecological legacy rather than treated as a purely technical reform.