On February 17, 2026, a meeting of the National Policy Dialogue on Water (NPDW) was held in Dushanbe. The NPDW is one of the key coordination platforms in Tajikistan for bringing together the government, development partners, and experts in the water sector.
Shoimzoda Jamshed, First Deputy Minister of Energy and Water Resources of the Republic of Tajikistan, opened the meeting. In his welcoming speech, he noted that a number of government-level documents had been adopted in Tajikistan to implement actions aimed at an integrated approach to water sector management for the current five-year period and the long-term perspective.
The National Water Strategy of the Republic of Tajikistan until 2040 was approved by Resolution No. 627 of the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan on November 29, 2024. This document links the development of the water sector with the implementation of the National Development Strategy of the Republic of Tajikistan until 2030, Sustainable Development Goals, Нthe National Climate Change Adaptation Plan. The long-term goals of the National Water Strategy include:
- Guaranteed provision of water resources for the population and the economy;
- Improved efficiency in water use;
- Elimination of water shortages;
- Ensuring access to safe drinking water and sanitation for the population;
- Sustainable operation and development of irrigation and drainage systems;
- Protection and restoration of water bodies;
- Protection against negative water-related impacts.
The State Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Program for 2025–2029 was approved by Government Resolution No. 33 on May 29, 2025. This program includes data on the population’s access to drinking water supply and sanitation systems as of 2022:
| Settlements | Share of population with access to drinking water supply, percent | Share of population with access to sanitation, percent |
| Cities and towns | 95 | 64 |
| Urban-type rural settlements | 48 | 10 |
| Villages | 22 | 0.1 |
| Total on Tajikistan | 41 | 15 |
For this key area, the program envisions the following target indicators by 2029:
- Increase the coverage of drinking water supply services to 72% of the population;
- Increase the coverage of sanitation services to 30% of the population.
During the February 17 meeting, the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources and the Committee for Housing and Communal Services under the Government presented detailed information on the implementation of the National Water Strategy and the State Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Program, as well as on the activities of the National Water Council, basin councils, and water user associations, established at the end of 2025.
Key challenges identified for water sector reform included the fact that 85% of water consumption in Tajikistan is in agriculture, emphasizing the need to reduce high water losses during irrigation. Over 70% of natural disasters in the country are water-related (floods, mudflows), underscoring the priority of adapting the sector to climate change.
Kavilmadam Ramaswami Parvathy, UN Resident Coordinator in the Republic of Tajikistan, highlighted Tajikistan’s important international initiatives in glacier preservation and the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation, including:
- Active support for the International Decade for Action “Water for Sustainable Development” 2018–2028;
- Organization of an International Glacier Preservation Dialogue within the framework of the High-Level International Conference (Dushanbe, May 29–31, 2025);
- The initiative for the adoption of the UN Environment Assembly Resolution 7/10 on the Preservation of Glaciers and the Cryosphere, particularly in mountain regions.
Tajikistan’s next steps in this area of international cooperation include holding the High-Level International Conference on Water Resources (Dushanbe, May 25-28, 2026. A representative of the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources presented information about the preparations for this event.
The National Policy Dialogue on Water in Tajikistan was organized by the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources of the Republic of Tajikistan, with substantive support from the Secretariat of the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (Water Convention), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and financial support from the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the Government of Germany.