Seven UN agencies jointly have released a report titled: Europe and Central Asia: Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition 2024 – Managing Water Resources Sustainably for Improved Food Security and Nutrition. The report measures the region’s progress towards the goal of eliminating hunger, food insecurity and all forms of malnutrition by 2030. The main focus is on water security with its connections to agriculture, food security and nutrition. Below we summarized the key findings related to Turkmenistan.
Turkmenistan is facing a growing water crisis that threatens public health, agriculture, and long-term food security. With extremely high water stress, deteriorating infrastructure, and heavy reliance on external water sources, the country is among the least water-secure in Europe and Central Asia (ECA).
Severe Water Insecurity and Stress
Turkmenistan scores 49 out of 100 on the global water security index – well below the world average (56) and the EU average (77) – placing it among the 20 most water-insecure countries in Asia. It also suffers from 134% water stress, meaning annual withdrawals exceed available renewable water resources. Nearly 96% of Turkmenistan’s water comes from outside its borders, highlighting extreme dependence on transboundary rivers such as the Amu Darya.
Agriculture, a sector employing 23% of the workforce and contributing 10.1% to GDP, consumes 61% of total water withdrawals, often through inefficient irrigation systems. Open canal systems like the Karakum Canal lose 30-60% of water during transmission. Meanwhile, only 34% of domestic wastewater is treated, compared to the EU average of 82%, limiting water reuse options.
Health and WASH-Related Mortality
Poor access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), especially in rural areas, contributes to public health issues. Turkmenistan reports 5.7 deaths per 100,000 from inadequate WASH – one of the highest rates in the region, surpassing deaths from natural water disasters. This, in turn, exacerbates undernutrition and disease risk, particularly among vulnerable groups like women and children.
Food Security and Nutrition Outcomes
Water insecurity is tightly linked to food insecurity. In Central Asia, the number of moderately or severely food-insecure people doubled from 6.3 million in 2015 to 12.9 million in 2023. In Turkmenistan, the prevalence of undernourishment is 4.1%, higher than the regional average of 3%.
Child and maternal nutrition data reveals mixed progress:
- Wasting among children under five stands at 4.1% (2019), above the global 2030 target of 3%.
- Overweight in children decreased from 5.4% in 2012 to 3.6% in 2022.
- Anemia in women (15-49 years) remains high at 26.6% (2019).
- Obesity in adults surged from 17.2% in 2012 to 21.4% in 2022.
While Turkmenistan has made strides – stunting declined from 26.6% in 2000 to 6.7% in 2022, and exclusive breastfeeding rose to 56.5% in 2019 – the country still faces significant nutritional challenges linked to water scarcity.
Climate Vulnerability and Infrastructure Limitations
Turkmenistan is also one of the top ten countries in ECA most vulnerable to climate change. Shrinking glaciers and seasonal snowmelt could disrupt river flows and worsen water shortages in the future. Despite these threats, Turkmenistan’s groundwater resources are limited (1.7% of total), offering little buffer for droughts or seasonal variability.
Additionally, much of the Soviet-era water infrastructure is outdated. The government’s water management efforts – such as the 2018 creation of a new water agency – have yet to fully address the scale of the problem.
Turkmenistan’s water crisis is not just an environmental issue – it is a health, economic, and social emergency. With growing water stress, high external dependency, and poor infrastructure, the country stands at a critical crossroads. Bold investments in sustainable water management and food systems are essential to secure a healthier and more resilient future.
Quotes:
- Water is not only a foundation for food security but also a catalyst for the transformation of agrifood systems, enabling sustainable practices and resilience against climate challenges.
- If the people of Europe and Central Asia are to have food on their plates, they must have water security.
- Highly water-stressed countries appear to have a much higher ratio of water withdrawals for agriculture in total withdrawals and lower agricultural water-use efficiency. For example, Turkmenistan suffers from 134% water stress as annual withdrawals exceed available renewable water resources while agriculture consumes 61% of total water withdrawals.
- Water security in the ECA varies significantly – from the 27 water-secure European Union countries to the 15 water-insecure countries, most of them in Central Asia, the Caucuses and the Western Balkans. Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan are the least watersecure countries in the region. Higher-income countries tend to be more water-secure.
- A combination of lack of access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) infrastructure in rural areas may contribute to relatively modest nutrition outcomes in Central Asia and the Caucasus. Beyond adverse impacts on nutrition, inadequate WASH infrastructure and practices result in human life losses every year. WASH-related mortality in the ECA region is the highest in Tajikistan, Armenia and Turkmenistan, in that order.
- Countries such as Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Republic of Moldova and Ukraine are highly dependent on water from neighbouring countries, complicating agricultural water management. Cooperation varies from non-existent during conflicts to full cooperation.
- In six out of 18 countries with recent (2015 and onwards) estimates, the prevalence of child wasting is still above the 2030 global target of reducing childhood wasting and maintaining it at less than 3%. These six countries are Armenia, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
- Beyond impacting nutrition, inadequate hygiene practices and drinking water and sanitation infrastructure results in actual annual human losses. WASH-related deaths are not zero in many ECA countries, with Tajikistan (9 deaths per 100 000 people), Armenia (5.8 deaths per 100 000 people) and Turkmenistan (5.7 deaths per 100 000 people) having the highest levels of WASH-attributed mortality. This mortality is higher than the mortality from natural water-related disasters throughout most of the world and in most ECA countries, too.
- At present, all ECA countries but Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan exceed the current world average of 2 950 kcal per person per day. These high levels of dietary energy supply are one of the reasons for the low PoU in the region (see part I of this report).
- The most water-stressed countries are those in Central Asia. Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, in particular, are among the top 20 highly water-stressed countries worldwide (FAO, 2024a). For water, most of the subregion relies heavily on the two key rivers – Amu Darya and Syr Darya, both draining into the Aral Sea – that flow through parts of five Central Asia countries and Afghanistan. The estimated present day mean annual flow of the two rivers is around 10 percent of what they discharged into the Aral Sea prior to the massive water withdrawals for irrigation in the second half of the twentieth century.
- The Central Asia subregion contains some of the world’s most complex and largest water infrastructure, including the dense network of irrigation canals. The world’s longest irrigation canal, the Kara Kum Canal, is in Turkmenistan, and the world’s highest reservoir, the Rogun dam on the Vaksh river is in Tajikistan. Most of the irrigation infrastructure built for large-scale collective farming has become largely inappropriate for modern agriculture production. It leads to major water losses (30-60%) during the transmission of water to irrigated areas via open canals. Thus, the rehabilitation of deteriorating infrastructure presents a key water challenge for Central Asian countries.
