On May 16, a ceremony was held in Turkistan city to launch a project for artificial precipitation increase. Kazakhstan has become the first country in the region to move to practical application of rain-making technologies.
Full-scale implementation of the climate initiative will begin on May 17, 2026. The project aims to increase reservoir levels and provide water resources for agricultural areas in the south of the country. The technology is designed to mitigate the effects of drought and water deficit for over 911,000 hectares of arable land in the Turkistan region.
The project is being implemented in close international cooperation with the National Center of Meteorology of the UAE, which has extensive experience in weather modification since the late 1980s.
The ceremony was attended by Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development of Kazakhstan Zhaslan Madiyev, President of the UN World Meteorological Organization and Director General of the UAE National Center of Meteorology Abdullah Ahmed Al-Mandous, UAE Ambassador to Kazakhstan Muhammad Said Muhammad Al-Ariki, and Akim of Turkistan Region Nuralkhan Kusherov. Zhaslan Madiyev noted that this marks the beginning of a modern climate infrastructure based on science, international partnership, and digital technologies. According to international assessments, artificial rain technologies, already actively used in China, the US, UAE, France, and Saudi Arabia, can increase precipitation by 10–20% compared to natural levels.
The project has a purely local impact, with a radius not exceeding 5 kilometers, and is not associated with large-scale weather phenomena. Safe salt-based reagents, used in global practice, are employed.
Selection of zones is carried out jointly with meteorological services, considering weather conditions, environmental situation, and water supply needs. The project is expected to significantly reduce drought damage and support yield growth, with a potential economic effect estimated at up to 35 billion tenge per year.
As part of the cooperation, Emirati specialists are training Kazakh meteorologists, pilots, and engineers. The project involves a wide range of agencies, including ministries of defense, ecology, agriculture, emergency situations, as well as KazAeronavigation and Kazhydromet. In the future, scaling the technology to other regions of Kazakhstan is being considered.
Notably, Uzbekistan launched an ambitious pilot project on artificial precipitation technologies on March 1. According to a decree by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, the National Committee for Ecology, the Academy of Sciences, and the Tashkent region administration are responsible for the program. In November 2025, Uzhydromet reported that the cost of one operation is estimated at $25,000–50,000.
Source: podrobno.uz