Inside Uzbekistan's Termite Crisis: 531 Neighborhoods and a Parliamentary Inquiry

On August 6, 2026, a deputy from Uzbekistan's UzLiDeP (Liberal Democratic Party) parliamentary faction filed a formal inquiry with the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Academy of Sciences, asking a pointed question: what actually happened to the roughly 50 billion UZS allocated in 2025 for termite control, and is it working? The inquiry put an official number on a problem that's been quietly building in the country for years — as of June 1, 2026, termite infestations had been documented in 531 mahallas (neighborhoods) across 12 regions, affecting more than 15,000 households.

A problem with a long history, now getting harder numbers

Uzbekistan's termite problem isn't new. The country set up a dedicated state body, the Republican Center for Termite Control, by Cabinet of Ministers decree in February 2012, operating under the Academy of Sciences' Institute of Zoology — producing poisoned bait and control agents and supplying them to regional disinfection stations. The Academy of Sciences has since built a digital monitoring platform (termit.academy.uz), developed with several ministries, the state cadastre agency, and the national Mahalla association, specifically to track the spread of infestations building-by-building across the republic. A notice from that monitoring effort reported figures including roughly 19,700 infested households nationwide, plus 98 social facilities, 75 administrative buildings, 46 historical monuments, and 1,100 hectares of affected open land — though that count isn't directly dated or necessarily aligned with the newer 2026 parliamentary figures, since the two come from different surveys taken at different times.

Where it's concentrated

Regional reporting consistently names the same hardest-hit areas: the Republic of Karakalpakstan, and the Khorezm, Kashkadarya, Surkhandarya, Navoi, and Samarkand regions. The 2026 parliamentary inquiry noted that some residents in Karakalpakstan had already spent between 1.5 million and 4 million UZS of their own money fighting termite damage, with mixed results — a detail that underscores why the inquiry specifically asked how the public funding allocated for the problem was actually being spent, rather than taking the allocation itself as evidence of progress.

What it looks like at the neighborhood level

National figures can obscure what this actually means for individual households. Kun.uz reported on residents of the Istiqbol mahalla, in the center of Shovot district in Khorezm region, who say termites spreading from a nearby cemetery have been damaging homes and structures in their neighborhood for roughly a decade. Residents there say they've been fighting the infestation on their own as best they can, while asking local authorities for sustained help — a pattern that echoes the broader national picture of a problem that individual households and local disinfection stations have had to manage largely on their own, year after year, even as it continues to spread.

A UNESCO World Heritage site is part of the damage

The infestation isn't limited to housing. Reporting from Uzbek outlet yuz.uz documents serious termite damage to 33 historical structures within Ichan-Qala, the walled inner city of Khiva and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1990 — including wood carvings and architectural elements at sites such as the Juma Mosque museum and the Pahlavon Mahmud mausoleum. The same reporting places the heaviest regional damage, beyond Khiva itself, in Karakalpakstan's Mizdakhan complex and sites across Surkhandarya, Kashkadarya, Navoi, and Samarkand — meaning the same insect pressure straining household budgets is also reaching some of the country's most significant cultural heritage.

A policy response already underway

Uzbekistan's government has taken at least one concrete regulatory step on the housing side: a Cabinet of Ministers resolution that took effect on November 4, 2024 established a formal procedure for declaring termite-damaged homes officially unfit for habitation, with affected residents provided alternative housing once a property is assessed and confirmed. District and city khokimiyat (administration) assessment commissions began carrying out that work starting January 1, 2025. The 2026 parliamentary inquiry effectively asks whether the funding and institutional response have kept pace with how far the problem has actually spread since then.

• A UzLiDeP parliamentary inquiry dated August 6, 2026 reports termite infestations confirmed in 531 mahallas across 12 regions as of June 1, 2026, affecting more than 15,000 households.
• The inquiry asks for an accounting of roughly 50 billion UZS allocated in 2025 for termite control, after some Karakalpakstan residents reported spending 1.5-4 million UZS of their own money with mixed results.
• Uzbekistan has had a dedicated state termite-control body, the Republican Center for Termite Control, since a February 2012 Cabinet decree, working with the Academy of Sciences' Institute of Zoology.
• The Academy of Sciences operates a digital monitoring platform (termit.academy.uz) tracking infested buildings nationwide, though its published figures and the 2026 parliamentary figures come from different surveys and aren't directly comparable.
• Karakalpakstan, Khorezm, Kashkadarya, Surkhandarya, Navoi, and Samarkand are consistently named as the hardest-hit regions.
• Damage extends to cultural heritage: 33 historical structures within Khiva's Ichan-Qala, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, have sustained serious termite damage to wood carvings and architectural elements.
• A November 2024 Cabinet of Ministers resolution created a formal process for declaring termite-damaged homes unfit for habitation and rehousing residents, with assessment commissions active since January 2025.

Subterranean termite damage of this scale underscores a point worth remembering anywhere termites are present: by the time damage is visible to residents, colonies have typically been established and spreading for a long time already, which is exactly why early identification and ongoing monitoring matter more than reacting only after structural damage shows up. A free Sevacorp inspection is a practical way to check for early termite activity before it reaches that point.

• Sources:
• UzLiDeP (Liberal Democratic Party of Uzbekistan), official site — "UzLiDeP deputy requests report on how 50 billion UZS allocated last year for termite control was spent" — https://uzlidep.uz/en/leads/ozlidep-deputati-termitl
• Yuz.uz — "Ichan-Qal'adagi 33 ta tarixiy obidaga termitlar jiddiy zarar etkazmoqda" (Termites are seriously damaging 33 historical monuments in Ichan-Qala) — https://yuz.uz/uz/news/ichan-qaladagi-33-ta-tarixiy-obidaga-termitlar-jiddiy-zarar-etkazmoqda
• Academy.uz (Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan) — "Termitlar bilan zararlangan hududlar raqamlashtirilmoqda" (Termite-affected areas are being digitized) — https://academy.uz/uz/page/pdf/termitlar-bilan-zararlangan-hududlar-raqamlashtirilmoqda
• Kun.uz — report on termite damage in Istiqbol mahalla, Shovot district, Khorezm region — https://kun.uz/63434317
• Kun.uz — "Termitlar tufayli yaroqsiz holga kelgan uy egalariga boshqa uy-joy beriladi" (Owners of homes made uninhabitable by termites will be given other housing) — https://www.kun.uz/news/2024/12/04/termitlar-tufayli-yaroqsiz-holga-kelgan-uy-egalariga-boshqa-uy-joy-beriladi