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Uzbekistan will begin imposing financial penalties on legal entities that draw water beyond their allocated limits or without the required permits, under a government resolution signed on 21 October 2026. Cabinet Resolution No. 585 establishes the detailed procedure for applying sanctions across agriculture, fisheries, industry, energy and household utilities — with the new rules taking effect in 2027.
Four categories of conduct constitute a violation under the resolution: drawing water in excess of an assigned limit; taking water without a formalised water-use contract; failing to equip abstraction points with management and metering devices; and abstracting water without a special-use permit.
Warning First, Penalty Second
The enforcement sequence is graduated. On a first offence, the state water inspectorate notifies the legal entity through the suvnazorat.uz electronic platform and issues a remediation instruction. If the violation is not corrected within ten days, a financial sanction is applied. A repeat offence within one year of a sanction being imposed carries a penalty five times the base amount.
The sanction itself is calculated per thousand cubic metres of water, using the base calculation unit (bazaviy hisoblash miqdori, BHM) at the percentage rate set out in Article 164 of the Water Code.
Payment Terms and Legal Safeguards
Entities that voluntarily pay 50 percent of the sanction within one month of receiving the decision and calculation are released from the remaining half. Alternatively, the full amount may be paid in instalments over no more than six months, with at least one-sixth settled each month; the instalment arrangement applies automatically if the first payment is made within the initial one-month window. Voluntary payment is treated as closing the matter without further legal action.
If an entity does not pay voluntarily within one month, the inspectorate files a claim in court. Any appeal suspends both the enforcement process and its deadlines until the appeal is resolved. Should a court find a sanction unlawful or unsubstantiated, the paid amount must be refunded within 15 days; late refunds accrue daily interest at one three-hundredth of the Central Bank’s base rate for each calendar day of delay.
The framework formalises financial accountability for water abstraction at a time when Uzbekistan faces significant pressure on its water resources, particularly in the agricultural sector, which accounts for the largest share of consumption. By anchoring penalties to the BHM and the Water Code rather than fixed sums, the government links sanction severity to a regularly updated reference figure, meaning the real value of fines adjusts over time without requiring fresh legislation.