CENTRAL ASIAN INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC-APPLIED CONFERENCE
“WATER PARTNERSHIP IN CENTRAL ASIA”
[end; the beginning is in No. 22 (65)]
“Women role in water resources management and use” (joint session of ADB, GWP CACENA and SIC ICWC)
Particular role of women in water resources management and use is the theme of special meeting within the framework of the conference. More active participation of women in water management is the guarantee of water sector sustainability as well as equitable and productive water use. The participants of the conference discussed the issues how should international experience be applied in Central Asia in this regard.
The sweeping changes brought about by transition in the countries of Central Asia have greatly affected the economies of these countries and the living standards of their populations. As a result of this, both men and women in Central Asia have paid a price.
Transition has increased the gender gap in employment opportunities, increased gender inequalities in education, decreased the quality and availability of health services, increased women’s vulnerability including domestic violence against women, and enhanced traditional stereotypical values and behaviors.
Within the agriculture water management sector, gender disparities are seen in inheritance of land and the social reality of their claim to communal property, access to water, participation in carrying different responsibilities, control of resources, capacity and skill to participate in agriculture water management , access to markets and commercial linkages.
If we are going to tackle gender issues in Central Asian Countries, the following need to be addressed:
At the Macro level:
We will need to:
- raise the awareness of policy makers, water managers, water users and women and men themselves, of the fact that economic transition and economic development are not Gender neutral.
- strengthen information and analytical capacity – we need reliable information on baseline gender differentials and on the gender impact of policies, programs and reforms
- support gender sensitive and participatory operations designed to address specific gender issues
- foster greater collaboration between all stakeholders – government, NGOs, civil society and communities in water management
- incorporate gender approaches in the development of the legislative basic in water sector
At the Micro level:
We will need to:
- Publicly recognize women as irrigators, through joint membership into Water User Associations and Canal Water Committees
- Set targets and quotas for women in representative structures of water management organizations
- Facilitate women landowners to formalize their land and water rights
- Build both male and female Awareness and Capacity on gender issues and its relation to water management
- Develop qualified extension services to farmers
- Increase the access of women to micro-credit facilities and financial sectors
- Challenge the rigid norm that irrigation is, only and exclusively, a male affair
We the participants of the gender and water session, representative of government, NGOs, international agencies, farmers, research institutes and universities of Central Asia recognize that gender is central to water management. Water and agriculture projects and programs have failed to incorporate gender issues within their operations and we have collectively agreed to form a network on an informal basis to undertake specific activities as a first step in changing this reality.
The objectives of this network will be to:
- raise awareness of the issues of gender in the region
- attain knowledge and understanding of gender issues in water management
- exchange experience and best practice of gender sensitive water management
We have agreed to further develop our initiative into a full project proposal. The network calls upon the GWP CACENA to play a coordinating role in fundraising and SIC ICWC to act as the information sharing center.
In conclusion, we believe that improved gender relations will increase effectiveness and efficiency in water productivity, water management and increase the general well being of very man, woman and child in Central Asia.
“Drinking water supply and population health” (joint session of the World Bank, ADB, ICWC, KNTU)
Today, normal drinking water supply and sanitation is one of more urgent problems in the countries of the region in the context of social stability and population health ensuring. At the section, presided by Prof. M.M. Mirzaakhmetov, experience of Kazakhstan in the realization of governmental drinking water supply and sanitation program was presented.
Meeting of GWP Regional Technical Consultative Committee of Central Asia and Caucasus
On 28 May, the ordinary meeting of GWP RTCC of Central Asia and Caucasus was held, in which GWP Executive Secretary E. Gabrielli who made his first visit to the region, participated. At the meeting the following issues were discussed:
- Lessons of creating the Country Water Partnership of Kazakhstan and the next actions on its functioning
- Plan of concrete actions for conducting a campaign to raise public awareness of IWRM in the region’s countries in 2004
- Discussing the presentation of the region at the annual GWP meeting in Malaysia in June 2004
- RTCC members rotation
- Discussing measures with regard to RTCC work program for 2004.
The organization of all events on 26-28 May 2004 in Almaty was coordinated by the Interstate Commission for Water Coordination of Central Asia (ICWC) and implemented by the Water Resources Committee of the Kazakh Ministry of Agriculture, Scientific-Information Center of ICWC, and GWP Regional Technical Consultative Committee of Central Asia and Caucasus (GWP CACENA).
The conference participants expressed their gratitude to the main conference sponsors such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and Global Water Partnership for their contribution to water partnership strengthening in the region.
MEETING ON “PROSPECTS AND POSSIBILITIES OF IWRM PRINCIPLES REALIZATION
IN THE AMUDARYA RIVER BASIN”
Regular meeting on the “Perspectives and possibilities of IWRM principles realization in the Amudarya river basin” was held on 10-13 May 2004 in the ICWC Training Center branch in Urgench.
The main objective of the meeting was to acquaint with the perspectives and possibilities of IWRM principles realization.
The meeting was held with the support of CIDA. During the opening of the meeting, BVO “Amudarya” Director Y. Khudayberganov made a speech. Chairman of “Eco Priaralie” SPA Dr E. Kurbanbayev and SIC ICWC official V. Prikhodko spoke as moderators at this meeting.
At the meeting, the main issues of the transition to hydrographic water management principle existing now in Central Asian states were elucidated.
The attention of the participants was mainly focused on the following problems:
- water accounting;
- WUA functioning principles;
- improving land reclamation condition as a factor of water conservation;
The transition to integrated water resources management is impossible without rational water use. As the meeting participants consider, this requires establishing good water accounting. At present, the transition from shirkat farm form to private one is occurring in Uzbekistan. A lot of primary water users appeared in place of one water user. Most farmers badly master farming standards and strive for momentary benefit. As a result of this, many farmers do not pay attention to land reclamation condition, state of on-farm irrigation and drainage systems at all. The technical condition of gauging stations on waterworks, which is far from perfect, aggravates general picture, and the state of water accounting on on-farm systems is unsatisfactory at all. The fact that measurement devices are lacking and that many farmers are badly grounded in fundamental hydrometry or not grounded in it at all makes the situation with establishing water accounting more complicated. An exigency to ground in fundamental hydrometry has appeared.
The lectures on legal aspects of integrated water resources management caused particular interest of the listeners. It was noted that in this direction it is necessary to carry out broader explanatory activities with water users, since by now they know practically nothing about water legislation, passes international water use regulations, experience of many leading countries in solving many conflict situations in water use. It is no secret that rational transboundary river water use is aggravated by the lack of clear contractual relationships between the states on water allocation and a mechanism for implementing the agreements concluded earlier.
The meeting participants consider that integrated water resources management should take into account the priorities of states and separate regions in solving their urgent and long-term socio-economic and environmental challenges and achieving their goals, especially the needs of nature and ecological requirements.
From these positions, integrated water resources management in the context of carrying out economic reforms in agriculture provides for leaving the former strict administrative water resources management, replacing by a more effective holistic approach based on close partnership supported by strict responsibility of all water use, management, protection and development participants to each other, main criteria of which are to improve water productivity, reduce non-productive losses to the minimum, and receive maximum end production per water unit, defined at all levels of water intake from sources.
The listeners marked that the participation in the meeting helped them to more really see the problems of middle- and downstream water users in the region, related with water quality and quantity, flowing from upper watershed, as well as to tell about their problems. The participants also noted that during the transition to integrated water resources management principles it is necessary:
- to begin activities for bringing gauging stations to normal technical condition;
- to carry out training of water users, beginning from the lower level, in fundamental hydrometry;
- to provide the gauging stations, weirs and other structures of WUAs and primary water users with measuring instruments and devices;
- to introduce experience of leading countries in water conservation techniques;
- to attract scientific potential of the states to practical activity.
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