In the Pavlodar region, the reconstruction of the Irtysh–Uspenka canal has been ongoing for five years without completion. Its length is 13 km. This was announced by the regional governor Asain Baikhanov.
According to the Kazinform news agency, work began back in 2020, but only 50% of the planned work has been completed so far.
"This has become a long-standing problem, turning into a local-scale white elephant, like the LRT. The canal has been under construction for 5 years. As a result, 10,000 hectares are not being used. This land could support 10,000 dairy cows or yield up to 500,000 tonnes of various crops — potatoes or carrots," the governor stated.
It is reported that the construction of the Irtysh–Uspenka canal began back in the Soviet era but was never finished. When it was decided to complete the canal, the authorised agency also ordered it to be equipped with a water storage facility and a pumping station.
However, during the pandemic, funding problems arose. Ultimately, the canal was not brought into operation. Now, completion of the project is promised for November of this year.
"Currently, the area of irrigated land in the region is 169,500 hectares. Of this, only 72,000 hectares are actually irrigated. To further develop this area, 35 projects have been developed with design and estimate documentation for bringing engineering infrastructure to the irrigated plots," the statement said.
At the same time, it became known that the regional leadership instructed the heads of the Akkuly, Terenkol, Zhelezinsky, Pavlodar and Irtyzhsky districts to work with each farm on measures to bring engineering communications to them.
Furthermore, the mayors of cities and districts, together with the Department of Agriculture and the Republican State Institution 'Ertis Basin Inspectorate', must take action regarding unused irrigated land plots.
Incidentally, last year the governor of the Pavlodar region proposed taking the project out of republican ownership and completing the Irtysh–Uspenka canal using the local budget.