Abstract
In Khorezm region, located in the Amudarya River lower reaches, changes in the water management and reclamation situation took place during the period from 1984 to 2012: reduction of specific annual water intake from 27 to 15 m3/ha; decline in cotton yield average for the region from 35 to 20 t/ha; permanent share of moderately and highly saline land in the region came to: 36.4% of the irrigated area (at the very beginning of the period), 46% of the monitored over a relatively long period up to the present time), and over 50% in some periods. The years of 2000, 2001, 2008 and 2011 were water shortage years on the Amudarya River; water shortage was most profound during the growing season 2001. The lowest specific annual intake was observed in dry years: 8.6 m3/ha in 2001; 10.7 m3/ha in 2008; and 9.1 m3/ha in 2011. Based on the statistic processing of long-term data by water organizations, including data on intakes, location of groundwater, salinity distribution over irrigated lands, and crops, the tendencies of low water impact on them under real conditions of the Khorezm region were determined by statistic processing. It was found that water shortage mostly affects groundwater depth as well as harvest.
