Tajikistan Environment - 2024

Environment - current issues

areas of high air pollution from motor vehicles and industry; water pollution from agricultural runoff and disposal of untreated industrial waste and sewage; poor management of water resources; soil erosion; increasing levels of soil salinity

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, Ship Pollution, Wetlands

signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Climate

mid-latitude continental, hot summers, mild winters; semiarid to polar in Pamir Mountains

Land use

agricultural land: 34.7% (2018 est.)

arable land: 6.1% (2018 est.)

permanent crops: 0.9% (2018 est.)

permanent pasture: 27.7% (2018 est.)

forest: 2.9% (2018 est.)

other: 62.4% (2018 est.)

Urbanization

urban population: 28.2% of total population (2023)

rate of urbanization: 2.73% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)

Revenue from forest resources

1.12% of GDP (2018 est.)

Revenue from coal

0.54% of GDP (2018 est.)

Air pollutants

particulate matter emissions: 53.65 micrograms per cubic meter (2019 est.)

carbon dioxide emissions: 5.31 megatons (2016 est.)

methane emissions: 4.87 megatons (2020 est.)

Waste and recycling

municipal solid waste generated annually: 1,787,400 tons (2013 est.)

Major rivers (by length in km)

Syr Darya (shared with Kyrgyzstan [s], Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan [m]) - 3,078 km; Amu Darya river source (shared with Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and Uzbekistan [m]) - 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: Tarim Basin (1,152,448 sq km), (Aral Sea Basin) Amu Darya (534,739 sq km), Syr Darya (782,617 sq km)

Total water withdrawal

municipal: 910 million cubic meters (2020 est.)

industrial: 1.61 billion cubic meters (2020 est.)

agricultural: 7.38 billion cubic meters (2020 est.)

Total renewable water resources

21.91 billion cubic meters (2020 est.)