No. 1 (186) January 2011

THE 56th REGULAR ICWC MEETING

The 56th regular meeting of the Interstate Coordination Water Commission (ICWC) was held on 12 January 2011, in Shymkent, Kazakhstan, under the chairmanship of Mr. Orman A.O., Chairman of the Committee on Water Resources of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The following items were entered to the agenda of the meeting:

1. Regarding results of vegetation period 2010 in the Amudarya and Syrdarya river basins (responsible - BWO "Amudarya" and BWO "Syrdarya")
2. Regarding water delivery, mode of the reservoirs cascade and withdrawal limits for non-vegetation period 2010-2011 in the Amudarya and Syrdarya river basins (responsible - BWO "Amudarya" and BWO "Syrdarya")
3. Consideration of the draft "Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Government of Kyrgyz Republic, the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan and the Government of the Republic of Uzbekistan about water and energy resources use in the Syrdarya river basin" (it is submitted by the Committee on water resources of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan).
4. Miscellaneous
5. Regarding agenda and venue of the next 57th ICWC meeting.

The ICWC members took into account the information of BWO "Amudarya" and BWO "Syrdarya" about withdrawals and the operations mode of the reservoirs cascade during the vegetation period 2010 in the Amudarya and Syrdarya river basins.

The ICWC members will entrust BWO "Amudarya" and BWO "Syrdarya" to implement joint measurements at the boundary hydro-stations on demand.

Participants took into account the information of BWO "Amudarya" and BWO "Syrdarya" about water delivery implementation for the states in the Amudarya and Syrdarya river basins during the non-vegetation period 2010-2011. The planned operation modes of the reservoirs cascade and the water withdrawal limits for the states in the Amudarya and Surdarya river basins for the non-vegetation period 2010-2011 were approved.

The ICWC members have entrusted to organize additional discussion of the draft "Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Government of Kyrgyz Republic, the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan and the Government of the Republic of Uzbekistan about water and energy resources use in the Syrdarya river basin" and to submit its results for consideration at the ICWC's meeting on the 4th quarter 2011.

The ICWC Secretariat have been entrusted to prepare a report about ICWC's activities to the EC IFAS meeting. The report consideration will be implemented by ICWC's members through questioning. The SIC ICWC, BWO "Amudarya" and BWO "Syrdarya" will help in the report preparation. The next 57th ICWC meeting is planned to be held on May, 2011, in the Republic of Uzbekistan.

2^nd CONSULTATIVE MEETING ON PREPARATION TOWARDS 6TH WORLD WATER FORUM

17-18 January 2011, Paris, France

Prof. Dukhovny V.A. as a Member of the World Water Council Board, and Dr. Umarov P.D. as his deputy, took part in the 2d Consultative meeting on preparation towards 6th World Water Forum. The meeting was held in the giant building of CNIT Congress very well equipped for reception of great number of participants.

The meeting was opened by Prof. Ben Braga, the President of International Committee of the Forum, who informed about huge work of the Committee aimed to defining the goals which have to meet forthcoming threats as well to choose ways from goals to specific solutions relevant and actual both some countries and the whole regions. All these are the features of 6th WWF compared with previous fora which had to define and discuss the problems.

Mr. Loic Fauchon, President of WWC, had emphasized that the principal subject of the Forum is to give clear recommendations which must guaranteed the access to water for all. This goal is completely correspond to the Millennium Development Goals and has to be a part of the Rio+20 process.

Today one of the major problems is water and energy, increased competition between them, instead of finding ways of synergy. A solution here lies in the ways of saving through water conservation and energy efficiency.

The strengthening of respect to international water law and development of hydro-diplomacy is of great importance.

Official opening was marked by impressive speech of Mrs. Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, the Minister of Environment of France. She said: "Our goal is to organize a constant and open dialogue on water, not only among water experts, but among all water users and decision-makers". The world has sufficient knowledge and tools to counter the growing water threats, about which a lot of media say, and they can be a basis to offer many solutions. These solutions must be not only technical, but economic, managerial, organizational, and most importantly, they must be scientifically justified. To do this, only having a knowledge is not enough, it is necessary to involve all interested parties, who shared desire and a strong willingness to cooperate. We highly appreciate the desire of the UN to strengthen the legal basis for access to clean water, that is why France became the 22d country that signed the UN Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses (New York, 1997) during the preparation process to the Forum. In this regard the need to increase investment to water sector and to the economical water consumption is of great importance.

Further the Consultative meeting was divided in accordance with the program on individual sections: thematic, regional, and political. The thematic commission has developed 12 key priorities for action and the 3 conditions for success what was based on the previous thematic meeting held in June 2010. These 12 priorities are divided into 3 pillars of sustainable development as priorities for action, and the conditions for success must be considered as the main goals of the Forum. It is supposed that this very significant range of proposals of the Forum will contribute to a more healthy, peaceful and prosperous world in the form of a blue planet.

The thematic workshops have identified further progress of thematic development: from the objectives to the decisions in order to organize at the same time the interaction between the four preparatory processes. It is supposed that the thematic commission and the preparatory groups on some areas will develop the joint work programs, which will be used through the website of the Forum as a single database of existing programs and initiatives for each of the identified priorities.

Prof. Dukhovny V.A. took part in the thematic group 1.5 "Cooperation and Peace, and Dr. Umarov P.D. - in the group of 2.1 "Integrated water resources management and the balance of their concurrent use".

The WWF6 Regional process is planned to be organized in June for four continents: Asia, Pacific, America and Europe The coordinators are assigned: for the Asia -Pacific region - Ms. Noriko Yamaguchi, for the Europe region - Mr. Jean-Francois Donzier. Initially, Central Asia and Caucasus, along with Eastern Europe were included in the framework of the European process, and Prof.Dukhovny as a member of the Board, was invited and participated in the European preparatory meeting in Brussels on December 22, 2010. Currently, under the decision of the International Committee of the Forum, the Caucasus and Central Asia is suggested to separate into an individual sub-region, as well as the Mediterranean, and to organize this process under the auspices of the International Committee of the Forum itself.

By the order of the President of the International Committee of the Forum - Mr. Ben Braga - thematic content of this program for the sub-region "Caucasus and Central Asia" was prepared and submitted to Ms. Eun-Kyung Park, the Regional Programme authority, and simultaneously to Mr. Ben Braga, the President of the International Committee of the Forum.

Development of regional program should include both a shared global objectives and specific regional ones. The watchwords of the regional program are "SMART" (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Target) and "WISE" (Wide, Involvement, Stakeholder, Exchanges).

It is planned to organize the task forces on the regions on March 2011, which will prepare the appropriate regional thematic platforms until January 2012. In line with this activity we have prepared a project document and the appropriate timetable.

After the Conference termination the meetings with Mr. Jean-Francois Donzier, the head of the European process, who confirmed his participation (regardless of our regional membership) in the preparation of the Conference and follow-up events, were held.

Prof. V.A. Dukhovny