MEETING DEDICATED TO THE “COORDINATION OF ACTIVITIES ON THE PREPARATION OF A STRATEGIC PLAN FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF IWRM PRINCIPLES IN CENTRAL ASIA”
On 26-28 April 2004 in ICWC Training Center, a meeting on the “ Coordination of Activities on the Preparation of a Strategic Plan for the Implementation of IWRM Principles in Central Asia”, organized as a “Round Table”, was held. The meeting organizers are ESCAP and SIC ICWC.
The meeting objectives and the issues discussed were as follow:
1. Analyzing the presented national reports and determining work structure for final project stage in regard to strategic planning and sustainable management of water resources in Central Asia.
2. Discussing plan of concrete actions for pilot project “Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in the Amudarya and Syrdarya River Lowlands” launched with the support of the US State Department.
Directors, senior specialists from ICWC executive bodies and water departments of CARs, executors of the ESCAP and “IWRM-Ferghana” projects activities, staff of the US Embassy in the Republic of Uzbekistan, and other stakeholders took part in the meeting.
Since 2000 the ESCAP has been implementing the “Capacity Building in Strategic Natural Resources Planning and Management in Asia and the Pacific” Project, within the framework of which SIC ICWC organized activities of the “Strategic Planning and Sustainable Management of Water Resources Development in Central Asia” Project from August 2002. The objective of the system of strategic planning and management (SPM) is to implement IWRM principles for achieving sustainable functioning of water sector that is a necessary requirement for determining priority directions and solving foreground and long-term tasks of socio-economic development of CARs.
In this context, the approbation of IWRM principles within the framework of the SPM project is first possible on pilot system, with the development of recommendations for stage-by-stage transition to water sector and other sectors of the economy in the future.
The meeting was opened by SIC ICWC Director Prof. V.A. Dukhovny.
In his speech, he dwelled on the key issues of water sector in CARs, necessity of a system approach and coordinated actions during solving them, a place and a role of strategic planning and sustainable management of water resources in long-term plans for the development of the states in the region.
In this respect, water sector of CARs being the most important area for society survival should stably fulfill the following objective functions:
- providing water needed for economic development of countries, and meeting the needs of society at regional, national, and local levels on the basis of an equitable access to water of needed amount and adequate quality;
- providing the preservation of natural objects as elements of landscape and native habitat of people, fauna and flora, having certain quantitative and qualitative requirements for to water;
- preventing and neutralizing the consequences of extreme situations of natural and technical nature, related to water factor;
- organizing scientific researches to effectively fulfill the above-mentioned functions and predict ecological and water situation for the future.
The ultimate aim of sustainable development - to achieve the growth in wellbeing of society and its each member separately, without detriment to the environment and without borrowing natural resources from future generations – cannot be achieved without strategic planning and management of water resources in the region. Thereafter, national reports on SPM-IWRM should be oriented toward the achievement of sustainable development goals in each country taking regional interests into account.
In his introductory report Mr. Ti Le-Huu (ESCAP) dwelled on strength and weaknesses of water sector of CARs. In particular, it was noted that in the region there is one of the most developed irrigation infrastructures in the world, significant experience in reclamation systems operation has been accumulated, water organizations have been provided with highly skilled specialists, higher political governance of the countries in the region is interested in deepening market reforms. This may become a reliable foundation in the achievement of SPM-IWRM goals in the region.
At the same time, diverse conditions and levels of socio-economic development and a weak economy in the countries of the region, small amounts of home and foreign investments in water sector while its capital intensity is large, and a range of other negative factors (which were nicely called “possibilities” by the reporter) are an obstacle in sustainable development of Central Asian states to a great extent. The task is to identify and analyze these and other destabilizing factors to achieve stable economic growth in the countries of the region.
Regional adviser of the US State Department for ecological issues Mr. R. Watts in his speech stressed that the US Government positively assessed the experience in pilot introduction of IWRM in Ferghana Valley and supported an idea of spreading it in other regions of Central Asia. the US State Department has limited means to fund the development projects, that is why it does not rank them to large and small ones, but directs its attention to the most important one in strategic plan. In this connection, the allocation of funds by the US State Department for preparatory activities towards the application of IWRM principles in Syrdarya and Amudarya river lowlands within the pilot project is taking on a particular significance. The US State Department, if the project is implemented successfully, will assist with attracting means to broaden the field of operations.
After introductory speeches, national reports on the SPM IWRM project in Central Asian countries were listened. Discussions concerning national reports enabled to identify strong and weak sides of the reports and proposals of National Working Groups (NWG) for the preparation of SPM IWRM in the Aral Sea basin.
More detailed analysis of national reports, carried out by SIC ICWC, showed the following picture of compliance of their contents with the qualifying standards:
1. A number of important elements of SPM IWRM (existing system of water resources management, programs for improving it and priorities, current internal and external problems, role of irrigated farming in socio-economic development of country, necessity of introducing hydrographic principle of water resources management, role of WUAs) in all national reports was showed completely enough.
2. Many other indicators (concrete problems of IWRM introducing, SWOT – analysis, equipment degree of pilot objects and systems, ways to reduce the fragmentation of sectors and resources, specifics and return from the introduction of IWRM in a concrete zone, possible obstacles in introducing IWRM at national level, principles of the transition to hydro ecological management of natural resources, technical details of a wide introduction of IWRM, concrete actions in pilot introduction zone, strategic goals of avoiding crisis in the future: ecology, social orientation and public participation, creation of favorable political environment, water sector sustainability) were not reflected or showed very weakly in all national reports.
3. By other positions, completeness of the reports varied within wide limits. So, the issues of linking the introduction of IWRM with local authorities were revealed only in the national report of Kazakhstan, human resources policy and propagation of IWRM experience – in the reports of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, water saving – in the report of Tajikistan and so on.
The meeting participants agreed on that the following important aspects of SPM IWRM were poorly elucidated or absent at all practically in all the national reports:
- understanding the key elements and strategic goals of SPM IWRM in whole;
- understanding the factors destabilizing the development and introduction of IWRM (especially in the national reports of Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan);
- measures for developing the interstate integration (in the national reports, it is described exclusively from the positions of drawbacks, not capabilities);
- proposals for using all (producing, natural, social, financial, human) development potentials from the positions of system approach;
- analyzing and bringing together different scenarios (versions) of national development with the interests of regional development;
- retrospective analysis of water sector development by stages (1970-1980-1990s) in terms of water management system efficiency;
- absence of orientation to the priorities not to eliminate consequences but causes of problems, and to low cost methods for solving them;
- analyzing IWRM experience in Ferghana Valley (in the national reports of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan – project participants) to disseminate it;
- system analysis of external and internal factors of SPM IWRM in their interrelation;
- issues of both inter-sectoral and inter-resource integration;
- issues of wider public involvement.
Evaluation sheets were distributed to NWGs to finishing off the reports.
The project prospective goal is to intensify the collaboration of CARs in transboundary water resources use through the preparation of proposals for the transition to IWRM in Amudarya and Syrdarya river lowlands. Principal provisions of the transition to IWRM is supposed to be perfected on the pilot introduction objects in Kazakhstan (Kzyl-Orda oblast), Turkmenistan (Dashoguz oblast), Uzbekistan (Karakalpakstan and Khorezm oblast). The implementation of the project is conditioned with the necessity of developing two-year experience of introducing IWRM principles in Ferghana Valley (with the financial support of the SDC). Preliminary investigation of pilot zones and basing the selection of future introduction objects are the intermediate goal.
Amudarya and Syrdarya river lowlands as Ferghana Valley are socially stressed zones, but have also significant differences:
- intricate natural and climatic conditions;
- excess of land resources (excluding Khorezm) while keen water deficit;
- lower quality of irrigation water and, as a result, of irrigated lands in respect to reclamation, in comparison with upper river zones;
- they most suffered from non-uniform flow allocation among its formation and spreading zones;
- infringing water users in getting approved water limits, conditioned in whole by water management costs, in particular its allocation;
- low GNP level per capita with regard to other zones of the region;
- complicated set of interrelated problems: of ecological (ecological disaster zone), socio-economic, transboundary nature.
The quintessence of the speeches of representatives from the national groups (proposals of Turkmen NWG were brought to the meeting participants by Prof. V.A. Dukhovny) and exchange of opinions on the issues of implementing the project for introducing IWRM principles in Amudarya and Syrdarya lowlands was as follows:
- take into account specific features of pilot zone, given above;
- maximally use positive experience and lessons of the “IWRM-Ferghana” Project;
- give a special attention to the control of water allocation process for equitable and sustainable water supply to water users, and especially to ecosystems;
- reach in this stage an understanding that the essence of IWRM is not to manage along hydrographic boundaries, the latter is only one of IWRM organizational aspects;
- involve additional irrigation water sources – ground and return – in management as a natural resource;
- the objective of the approbation of IWRM principles on pilot objects in lowlands is to be to further introduce IWRM on a scale of oblast, country, whole region.
The involvement of all these Central Asian countries in IWRM principles revision process on pilot objects is completed by the implementation of this project.
The consideration of both the issues (projects of “IWRM in Amudarya and Syrdarya river lowlands” and SPM IWRM in CARs) within the framework of one meeting was a positive moment. The problems of implementing these projects were discussed in interdependence.
In conclusion, the representatives of the ESCAP (Mr Ti Le-Huu) and US State Department (Mr. R. Watts) assured the meeting participants that they would make efforts to attract means of financial institutes to support the projects for IWRM in Central Asia.
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