Uzbekistan Environment - 2022

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES 

Environment - current issues

shrinkage of the Aral Sea has resulted in growing concentrations of chemical pesticides and natural salts; these substances are then blown from the increasingly exposed lake bed and contribute to desertification and respiratory health problems; water pollution from industrial wastes and the heavy use of fertilizers and pesticides is the cause of many human health disorders; increasing soil salination; soil contamination from buried nuclear processing and agricultural chemicals, including DDT

Environment - international agreements

party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Climate Change-Paris Agreement, Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands

signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Air pollutants

particulate matter emissions: 25.29 micrograms per cubic meter (2016 est.)

carbon dioxide emissions: 91.81 megatons (2016 est.)

methane emissions: 96.16 megatons (2020 est.)

Climate

mostly mid-latitude desert, long, hot summers, mild winters; semiarid grassland in east

Land use

agricultural land: 62.6% (2018 est.)

arable land: 10.1% (2018 est.)

permanent crops: 0.8% (2018 est.)

permanent pasture: 51.7% (2018 est.)

forest: 7.7% (2018 est.)

other: 29.7% (2018 est.)

Urbanization

urban population: 50.5% of total population (2023)

rate of urbanization: 1.25% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)

total population growth rate v. urban population growth rate, 2000-2030

Revenue from forest resources

forest revenues: 0% of GDP (2018 est.)

Revenue from coal

coal revenues: 0.06% of GDP (2018 est.)

Waste and recycling

municipal solid waste generated annually: 4 million tons (2016 est.)

Major lakes (area sq km)

fresh water lake(s): Aral Sea (shared with Kazakhstan) - largely dried up

Major rivers (by length in km)

Syr Darya (shared with Kyrgyzstan [s], Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan [m]) - 3,078 km; Amu Darya river mouth (shared with Tajikistan [s], Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan) - 2,620 km
note – [s] after country name indicates river source; [m] after country name indicates river mouth

Major watersheds (area sq km)

Internal (endorheic basin) drainage: (Aral Sea basin) Amu Darya (534,739 sq km), Syr Darya (782,617 sq km)

Total water withdrawal

municipal: 2.41 billion cubic meters (2017 est.)

industrial: 2.13 billion cubic meters (2017 est.)

agricultural: 54.36 billion cubic meters (2017 est.)

Total renewable water resources

48.87 billion cubic meters (2017 est.)

NOTE: The information regarding Uzbekistan on this page is re-published from the 2022 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Uzbekistan 2022 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Uzbekistan 2022 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.