REGIONAL WORKSHOP ON “LARGE HYDRAULIC STRUCTURES SAFETY MONITORING”
The regional workshop on large hydraulic structures safety monitoring was held in Tashkent on 15-17 July 2004. This workshop was organized by the State Inspection for the Control and Supervision of the Technical Condition and Safety of Large and Particularly Important Waterworks (Gosvodkhoznadzor) at the Cabinet of the Republic of Uzbekistan together with the Scientific-Information Center of ICWC.
The main objective of the workshop was to exchange experience in the organization of large hydraulic structures safety monitoring in the countries that participated in the workshop.
More than 30 representatives from the five Central Asian countries, including the representatives of the Gosvodkhoznadzor and its Diagnostic Center, Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources, Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan, SPA SANIIRI, Central Hydromet, SIC ICWC, “Uzbekenergo” took part in the workshop.
The regional workshop was opened by Chairman of the Gosvodkhoznadzor“ T.K. Kamalov. He welcomed the participants of the meeting and emphasized the importance of the issue of the organization of large hydraulic structures safety monitoring in Central Asian countries. SIC ICWC Director Prof. V.A. Dukhovny pointed to the importance of international cooperation in providing safety of dams, and expressed his confidence that the workshop would help to improve the cooperation between all Central Asian countries in achieving safe operation of hydraulic structures on transboundary and national objects.
In the discussions the speakers noted that the economy of Central Asian states is closely related to the use of transboundary water resources. Transboundary river basins represent controlled water systems since their flows are almost fully regulated by reservoir cascades. The most of hydraulic structures that regulate flows were built 30-40 years ago, and as they become obsolete they need more and more investments to organize observation of their technical condition, carry out preventive, repair and renewal operations, and keep permanent monitoring to ensure safe operation of them. However, in the recent years the mentioned operations are not being performed in full for objective and subjective reasons, mainly due to the scantiness of money allocated for operational measures. The current technical condition of the most of hydraulic structures does not meet the qualifying standards, and separate structures represent a danger to the life of people when emergencies arise.
In whole, during the discussion the participants expressed wishes to continue and strengthen the cooperation of corresponding services of Central Asian Republics in the field of safety of dams and other hydraulic structures, in such aspects as the formation of normative-legal and normative-technical bases, organization of information and experience exchange, application of modern methods for diagnostic monitoring of technical condition of hydraulic structures and others.
The workshop participants proposed the following recommendations:
1. The workshop participants state that about 90% of agricultural production, 40% of electric energy output, and security of more than 15 million people living lower dams, along rivers and creeks depend on the reliability of operation and safety of water facilities in the region. In this connection, the anxiety is rising, and the issues related to reliable and safe operation of waterworks, especially dams, which require developing common approaches in solving these problems in CARs, are becoming more urgent.
2. The participants of the regional workshop unanimously recognized the necessity to provide cooperation between the countries of the region in the following directions:
- information exchange in regard to ensuring safe operation of hydraulic structures;
- experience exchange in regard to the use of modern methods and techniques for diagnostic monitoring of the condition of hydraulic structures, and application of advanced technologies of repair and reconstruction;
- considering the possibility of creation of a unified normative-technical documentation in regard to technical regulation of no-failure dam operation (special technical regulations, norms and rules for projecting, construction and operation of dams);
- ensuring harmonization of normative documents developed and approved by the countries in regard to providing safety of hydraulic structures;
- implementing the cooperation of national services responsible for the safety of hydraulic structures;
- organizing a system of regular training and familiarization tours for water specialists in regard to providing safety of dams and large hydraulic structures;
- strengthening the cooperation with international organizations, including with The International Commission on Large Dams, and establishing relations with the National Committees on Large Dams of countries with developed water sector and hydropower engineering.
3. To ask SIC ICWC to disseminate information on the workshop through its information network, and assist in organizing activities on implementing recommendations of the regional workshop and in attracting donor support for performing regional dam safety monitoring projects in the future.
4. To ask the representatives of the countries participating in the regional workshop to bring the results of this meeting to the notice of the respective authorities of CARs, IFAS Board members.
5. To ask SIC ICWC to put the consideration of the issue on the safety of dams and hydraulic structures in Central Asian countries on the ICWC meeting agenda.
MEETING ON THE “CREATION OF AN INFORMATION-CONSULTING CENTER ON
THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION SIXTH FRAMEWORK PROGRAM IN CENTRAL ASIA
(INFO FP6 EU-CA)” PROJECT
The meeting on the “Creation of an Information-Consulting Center on the European Commission Sixth Framework Program in Central Asia” Project was held on 26-27 July 2004 in the Scientific-Information Center of ICWC.
The strategic goal of the project is to create a regional network of the interaction of the European science with the scientific and technological potential of Central Asian region within the 6th Framework Program (FP6) for joint expansion of mutually beneficial cooperation in Central Asia. For fulfilling the tasks of the project, it is necessary to set up a network of information, consultation, training and exchange of principal ideas and plans of scientific and technical activities, which will enable to solve the problem of attracting Central Asian research teams to the European Research Area (ERA).
The main project executor in Central Asia is SIC ICWC. The co-executors of the project in each state are: in Kazakhstan – SIC ICWC Kazakh Office; in Kyrgyzstan – SIC ICWC Kyrgyz Office; in Tajikistan – “TajikNIIGiM”; in Turkmenistan – SIC CSD; in Uzbekistan – Institute of Mechanics and Seismic Stability of Structures at the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan.
To disseminate information and expand audience, project web site www.fp6.cawater-info.net was set up. All information materials on FP6 will permanently be placed on the web site during the project implementation period. The discussion of the problems, which Central Asian scientists face on submission of project proposals to the FP6 tenders, will be conducted at the web-site forum. Consulting services can also be realized through electronic conference where the forum administrator can answer to the questions of users. All of that along with the possibility of subscription to the distribution of all the project news editions by e-mail will help researchers from Central Asia to be up on the FP6 events.
The meeting participants were given recommendations for preparing proposals for tenders and selecting partners. Detailed dates of next activities with the project contact points were discussed. Approaches to the use of partner search system were demonstrated to the participants.
The participants of the workshop outlined priority actions under the project for the next few months, and discussed and approved work schedule.
WORKSHOP “DECISION-MAKING INFORMATION SUPPORT SYSTEM AND OPPORTUNITIES OF CARESD.NET PORTAL”
A workshop on the “Decision-making information support system and opportunities of CARESD.NET Portal” organized the UNDP was held on 28 July in Tashkent. The representatives of the UNDP, ICWC, CSD, State Committee for Nature Conservation of Uzbekistan, Central Asia Regional Energy Center (CAREC), a number of NGOs and newspapers took part in the workshop. On behalf of ICWC, SIC ICWC officials I. Beglov and B. Turdybayev participated in the event.
An Internet Portal dedicated to the environmental themes is being developed with the support of the UNDP in he region. The workshop was dedicated to the issues of developing this project and attracting all the concerned parties to the collaboration.
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