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No. 10 (53) March 2004



NATO ADVANCED RESEARCH WORKSHOP
“INTEGRATED WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT IN TRANSBOUNDARY BASINS —
AN INTERSTATE AND INTERSECTORAL APPROACH ”

NATO Advanced Research Workshop “Integrated Water Resources Management in Transboundary Basins: Interstate and Intersectoral Approaches” was organized by the International Water Law Research Institute of the University of Dundee, UK and Scientific-Information Center ICWC of the Central Asia together with the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Management and Processing Industry of the Kyrgyz Republic.

Advanced Research workshop where more than 50 participants took part — heads of the water management organizations of the Central Asian states, representatives of NGOs and research institutions, and also water users of these countries, leading specialists of the water management sector from the Russian Federation, USA, France, IWMI, SDC, considered key issues of the concept of the integrated water resources management (IWRM). 19 reports have being presented to the participants which were dedicated to the world experience of integrated water resources management, principal grounds of the IWRM concept, introduction of the IWRM’s elements in the pilot projects in the Central Asia at the national as well as interstate levels.

The aim of this workshop is to bring together an interdisciplinary panel of world experts on the subject, with a view to improving cooperation in the Aral Sea basin through the application of integrated water resources management (IWRM). International experience in IWRM will be disseminated and debated so that basin states are better able to use science to formulate their own national legal and policy approaches. This will enhance the long-term environmental sustainability of the Aral Sea basin and contribute to efforts in drafting guidelines and policies that will allow broader application of IWRM.

Speakers included ministerial representatives from the governments of the Aral Sea basin states, along with participants from a wide variety of disciplines including water resource management, engineering, law and the energy sector. The themes of the workshop included:

  • Best international practice in IWRM;
  • The assessment of water allocation mechanisms at national and international levels;
  • The role of IWRM in poverty alleviation;
  • Issues relating to governance and participatory water resources management; and
  • Measures for improving interstate cooperation regarding the waters of the Aral Sea basin.

The workshop was held in the form of several panels, at which IWRM issues at international and national levels were discussed.

As result of discussions of the workshop’s topics, the participants of the workshop agreed upon the following:

1. IWRM is the most important direction and tool of development and improvement of the water management oriented towards achievement of the efficient “water governance”, or “water management” in accordance with Millennium Goals (Johannesburg) adopted in 2002, which allow radically increase efficiency and productivity of the whole water management complex of the Central Asian Region.

2. Water use and management at international and national levels should be implemented ac-cording to the following principles:

  • Achievement of sustainable development in all economic sectors.
  • River basin management based on hydrographic principle taking into account both the interrelation of all waters — surface, ground and return waters — and possible climatic changes in the region.
  • Water conservation at all levels and in all the forms of water use.
  • Priority of vital human water needs as well as water — dependent ecosystems needs and requirements over other kinds of water use.
  • Special attention to the problem of struggle against poverty in the respective countries in the region, keeping in mind a significant role, taken by irrigated farming in improving rural population well-fare.
  • Participation of the concerned public in decision-making, including the issues of their implementation, financing and functioning; “transparency” of decision-making processes, exchange and access to relevant information at all levels of water management: international, national and local.

3. The efficiency of regional “water governance” system in the Aral Sea basin depends on political will of higher state direction, on readiness and ability to compromise and mutually account the interests of the participating countries at all levels of decision-making as well as on presence of an independent authorized state organ for water resources use and protection management in Central Asian states.

4. A special role in “Water governance” system belongs to water right as the main social instrument, proper application of which should provide “water for all” in its three forms: international, national and transnational rights.

5. The implementation of IWRM at regional level is not possible without creating an efficient legal, institutional and technical basis for interstate cooperation through either further developing the available regional instruments, strengthening an equal representation of all countries in them or if necessary creating new transboundary water resources management mechanisms and preventing and settling possible disputes in water use.

6. International legal base of IWRM can provide equitable, reasonable, ecologically sustainable water use and allocation regime that should be obligatory for all the parties. During the development of a system of respective international agreements on transboundary rivers in the region, the prepared draft agreements on several issues of transboundary cooperation as well as the “Legal Model” for transboundary water resources — a procedure for legal assessment developed by the International Research Institute for Water Laws, Dandy University, — could be used.

7. The improvement of international legal regime of water use on the Aral Sea basin transboundary rivers should be accompanied by perfecting and improving the effectiveness of institutional mechanisms for regional cooperation: ICWC and BVOs. It is supposed expedient to strengthen in the future a legal status of regional organs, revision of rights and authorities of these organs in order to improve the priority and expand their responsibility, as stipulated in the ASBP-2.

8. Recognizing, according to the international law principles, the sovereignty of each state with respect to the part of transboundary water resources located within its territory does not eliminate the necessity to take into account the legal rights and interests of other states, just as following the requirements of the environment itself for water to save and raise bioproductivity and biodiversity. Water activity within one country should be planned and carried out in compliance with admitted international obligations such as equitable and reasonable use and not causing a significant damage.

9. It is recommended to pay more attention to reducing water consumption in the activities of ICWC today and in the future in order to achieve decrease in specific water intakes on average by 15-20% by 2025 that will allow to meet the requirements of upper flow formation zones for electric energy, and, at the same time, the requirements of middle- and downstream areas for irrigation water as well as of wetlands. This activity should be combined with the activity, directed to preventing negative consequences of climate change, focusing a special attention on the growth in frequency of extreme occurrences in the region (droughts and floods) and introduction of economic mechanism for water use. The most important direction of the activity by 2010 is to implement the decisions of the heads of the states and ASBP-2 with respect to the transfer to rational water resources management.

10. IWRM at national level requires development and perfection the system of national water legislation and adjacent sector of law (land, environmental, entrepreneurial and so on). The fact that the Aral Sea basin countries differ in the level of political, social and economic development should not serve as an obstacle in the way to “bringing together”, and, may be, “unifying” the national water laws.

11. Along with legal and institutional measures, working out techniques for planning, allocating and correcting water use at all levels with the participation of water users, introducing hydrometry, especially SCADA systems and other automated systems at inter-state level and on main canals, and applying an extended water saving system, meeting the interests of the entire region with introducing economic mechanism for water use payment are of great importance for the implementation of IWRM.

12. The realization of IWRM in the Aral Sea basin should be followed by well-directed efforts for preparing highly skilled specialists — hydraulic engineers, hydrologists, lawyers, economists, ecologists and representatives of other adjacent professions in water sector — including creating the category of “water leaders”, able to provide the implementation of effective “Water governance” in the Aral Sea basin in the long-term outlook, taking measures for approaching the standards for training water specialists of Central Asian countries.

13. Unbiased and perhaps full information of the concerned community about the importance of water resources for the whole region, necessity to follow the norms of international law and national legislation, related to the issues of water use and conservation and improvement of water and environment quality as a whole should play a special role in the implementation of IWRM in Central Asian countries.