Abstract: Rising from Glacier No. 1 in Mount Tiangar area in the Tianshan Mountains and being 230 km in length, Urumqi River is the main stream system in its watershed. It passs throughUruqi City, Urumqi County, and Miquan County from south to north,.. flows into Dongdao-haizi Lake in the southern marginal zone of Junggar Basin, and is the main source of water sup-ply of Urumqi City. Its annual runoff volume is 235 × 10⁸m³, the river water is partially divert-ed by Huangcaoliangzi canal and Gongsheng Canal, most of which is diverted into Qingnian Canal and then is diverted to the irrigated areas at the lower reaches through Heping canal afterit is stored and regulated by Ulabuy Reservoir and Hongyanchi Reservoir.
The intra-annual streanflow of Urumqi River is badly-distributed, and spring droughts andsummer floods occur frequently to some extent although the streamflow is regulated by the tworeservoirs. In the water resources in Urumqi River watershed, groundwater resources is about 4.67 x 10⁸m³. The groundwater in a volume of 0.97× 10⁸m³ flows out from the depressions inUlabuy region, a part of it is diverted into the urban water supply system and another partflows into ulabuy Reservoir.
During recent decades, the water supply situation in the irrigated areas has been greatlyimproved by some extension and maintenance projects and by adopting a series of water-savingmeasures in order to satisfy the urban water consumption as possible. However, the water sup-ply volume for agriculture in the southern and northern suburban districts is greatly reduced, and an autumn shortage of water sometimes occurs in the irrigated area of Heping canal. In thispaper, some countermeasures are put forward for the sustainable and high-efficient utilizationand management of water resources in Urumqi Rive irrigated areas based on analysis on the sit-uations of water supply and consumption, increase of urban water consumption, water price, etc.

Key words: Urumqi River, irrigated area, utilization of water resources, sustainable management