Azernews.Az

By 2040 the demand for water resources will significantly increase in Kazakhstan and amount to 25 billion cubic meters per year, the Minister of Environment and Water Resources of Kazakhstan Nurlan Kapparov said speaking at a government meeting on December 24.

"By 2040 the demand for water, or water consumption, in Kazakhstan will increase from the current 16 billion cubic meters to 25 billion cubic meters per year, or grow by 56 per cent," the minister said.

Kapparov said that this forecast is calculated on the basis of the country's population growth over the reported period to 20.8 million.

Kapparov also stressed that in the industrial sector, growth in water consumption will be about 35 per cent which corresponds to the growth of industrial production by four per cent per year. The greatest growth in water consumption will be observed in the extraction and processing of oil and gas, mining and electricity production.

In addition, Kazakhstan's agriculture also plans to expand the areas of regular irrigation to 2.1 million hectares by 2040 which consequently will lead to an increase in water consumption by 1.6 per cent per year.