he Karshi Steppe is a vast tract of desert land covering a territory of

over 2 million hectares. It lies in the south-west of Uzbekistan, between the

Zarafshan and Amudarya river valleys, and borders on the Kizilkum
desert in the south and west.

The climate and soil conditions of the Karshi Steppe are exiremely
favourable for growing heat-loving crops, in parficular fine-staple varielies
of cotton. In fact this is one of the promising new cotton producing regions
of the country and when fully developed Karshi Steppe will be producing
1.3 million tons of fine-staple cotton per annum.

Until recently land development work in the Karshi Steppe was hampered
by the water deficiency of the Kashkadarya river —the only source of irri-
galion in the zone, whose discharge is almost fully taken up in the eastern
upsiream section of the catchment basin.

The construction of the Chimkurghan and Pachkamar resevoirs to control
the discharge of the Kashkadarya river basin and also the channeling of water
from the Zarafshan river along the Eskiangar canal have made it possible to
increase ihe irrigated area and somewhat improve the water supply. However
the further development of this vast tract of land required the delivery of
200—400 cu.m of water per second from the Amudarya river fo a height of
130—200 mefres. With the present engineering and industrial leve! of the Cen-
tral Asian republics ihis task has been solved.

The "Sredazgiprovodkhlopok” Designing Institute worked cut a master-
plan for the irrigation and development of the Karshi Steppe and an integ-
raled project for the first stage of irrigation work on an area of 200,000
hectares which provided for ithe delivery of water from the Amudarya river
by means of pumping stations. These plans were approved in 1969 and the
launching of this major irrigation project in the history of irrigation marked the
beginning of an important underiaking — the irrigation and development of
900,000 hectares of new land.

The Karshi Steppe is irrigaied by means of the Karshi main canal which
is fed by the Amudarya river. The total length of the canal is 165 km. The

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