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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Riverside, California » Agricultural Water Efficiency and Salinity Research Unit » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #383474
Research Project: Sustaining Irrigated Agriculture in an Era of Increasing Water Scarcity and Reduced Water Quality

Location: Agricultural Water Efficiency and Salinity Research Unit

Title: Hydrochemistry of Mountain Pamir: Tributaries of the transboundary Pyanj River and their waters applicability for irrigation

Author
item NORMATOV, INOM - Tajik National University
item Anderson, Raymond
item SHERMATOV, NURMAKHMAD - Tajik National University
item NORMATOV, P - Technological University Of Tajikistan

Submitted to: Sustainable Development of Mountain Territories
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/9/2021
Publication Date: 4/21/2021
Citation: Normatov, I., Anderson, R.G., Shermatov, N., Normatov, P. 2021. Hydrochemistry of Mountain Pamir: Tributaries of the transboundary Pyanj River and their waters applicability for irrigation. Sustainable Development of Mountain Territories. 13(1):53-57. https://doi.org/10.21177/1998-4502-2021-13-1-53-57.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21177/1998-4502-2021-13-1-53-57

Interpretive Summary: The Panmir Mountains are a critical source of irrigation waters for multiple countries in Central Asia. However, river flow rates and transit length times are increasing with increased glacial melt and reduced glacial length. This results in increased water flow through bedrock and increased river salinity. In this study, we characterized the recent trends in water salinity in four tributaries of the Pyanj river. The four tributaries had greatly varying salinities and cation ratios such as the Sodium Absorption Ratio and Exchangeable Sodium Percentage with the highest salinity tributary (Gunt) having a more than fivefold higher salinity than the lowest salinity tributaries. This information will help water managers in the region to improve the usage of their irrigation waters to avoid salinization of downstream agricultural regions.

Technical Abstract: The results of chemical analyses of the waters of the transboundary Pyanj river tributaries – Gunt, Shakhdara, Bartang, Yazgulem and Vanch rivers are presented. The absence of stationary sources of pollution in the river basins and the dominance of rock weathering in the formation of hydrochemistry of the studied tributaries of the transboundary Pyanj River were established.