SECOND MEETING OF THE BASIN DIALOGUE IN THE AMU DARYA RIVER BASIN
On December 4, 2024, the 2nd meeting of the Basin Dialogue in the Amu Darya River Basin was held in Urgench as part of the Program “Climate Sensitive Water Resources Management in Central Asia””. D. Ziganshina and Z. Yarullina took part in the meeting on behalf of SIC ICWC.
The Program is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, with the financial support from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The Program’s primary goal is to build capacities of national and regional organizations responsible for water resource management in implementing climate sensitive integrated water resources management at the regional level.
Representatives of the Ministries for Foreign Affairs of Central Asian countries, relevant line ministries, and Program’s international partners attended the meeting.
Objectives of the meeting included:
- Enhancing regional cooperation by developing monitoring and planning tools aligned with the principles of climate sensitive IWRM based on agreement with national authorized agencies.
- Discussing the main results of the GIZ|SDC|EU CSWRM project for 2024, proposing priorities for 2025, and getting partners’ input for the project Action Plan for 2025.
- Considering proposals for joint efforts within the agreed priority area “Joint work to preserve ecosystems of the Amu Darya River basin, including zones of flow formation and dispersion”.
- Discussing the concept and planning events for the International Day of the Amu Darya River in 2025.
D. Ziganshina, Director of SIC ICWC, presented a concept note on joint efforts within the agreed priority area “Joint work to preserve ecosystems of the Amu Darya River basin, including zones of flow formation and dispersion”. The presented concept was accepted as a baseline and approved by authorized experts from participating countries.
Following the meeting, an inception regional workshop was held to address the issues of water quality improvement in the Amu Darya River basin. Representatives of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan participated in this workshop.
It was noted during the discussion that water quality management in Central Asia countries remains ineffective and inefficient and largely neglected as the primary focus is given to water quantity and water allocation, mainly for irrigation and hydropower generation. Participants emphasized the need to enhance national policies and strengthen regional cooperation in water quality management. It was proposed to form a dedicated regional working group on water quality of the Amu Darya River.
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