Water

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ADB’s Water Policy Implementation Review
In-Country Consultation for Kazakstan

Opening Remarks By:

Wouter Lincklaen Arriens
Lead Water Resources Specialist
Asian Development Bank

15 September
Almaty, Kazakstan

Excellencies, distinguished participants, ladies and gentlemen,

On behalf of the Asian Development Bank, I warmly welcome you all to this meeting and I thank you for taking time out from your busy work schedules to attend this incountry consultation for ADB’s water policy implementation review.

Kazakstan has a unique place among ADB’s member countries because the water sector is the backbone of ADB’s operations in the country. That is why Kazakstan was selected as one of the five Asian countries to be consulted as part of ADB’s water policy implementation review. We sincerely value your opinions and feedback based on your experience in the water sector.

A few weeks ago, a delegation of ADB’s Board of Executive Directors visited Kazakstan, and the delegation expressed the view that ADB should continue its water sector operations in the country.

ADB, through its Kazakstan Resident Mission in Astana, has worked closely with all parties concerned in Kazakstan, including Government, Parliament, private sector, NGOs, media, and development partners, in a constructive engagement in the water sector, with a focus on delivering results on the ground.

We are therefore particularly interested in Kazakstan’s view how ADB can expand its role as a reliable and effective development partner in the water sector to do “more” and “better” in its water operations in Kazakstan, as well as in other countries in the central Asian region. And this consultation today is an important opportunity for us to get feedback from all participants gathered here today.

We are fully aware that Kazakstan is a leader among the central Asian countries, and that its economy has gone through a remarkable and sometimes difficult transition in recent years. As a result of that transition, some of the infrastructure and water service levels that were achieved in the past, have deteriorated in recent years and have caused increasing hardship for rural communities.

Moreover, with a fast growing economy, the development gap between urban and rural communities has widened. The Government is committed to investment and reform programs to narrow this gap, and ADB has been requested to assist the Government in investment programs for rural water services and water resources management.

ADB aims to support the Government and other development partners to re-establish water service levels that existed before, and to go beyond that to achieve “water for all”, which is ADB’s vision and policy in the water sector.

In addition to loans for investment projects, ADB has also provided technical assistance to the Government in institutional development in the water sector, e.g. to strengthen the Government’s Water Resources Committee, its programs for rural water supply and sanitation, and its program for cooperation with Kyrgyzstan for the shared management of the Chu and Talas river basins. We would also like Kazakstan to share its experience with other countries in the Asian region.

ADB’s vision and practice is to make effective development investments through partnerships, with Government, civil society, private sector, and other development partners. Experience in the region has shown that partnerships are particularly important in the water sector, where many agencies in and outside government play a role. Water is truly everybody’s business, everyone’s concern. However, while coordination in the sector is vitally important, human nature is such that no one likes to be coordinated, and this poses a challenge to the work in the water sector in Kazakstan, as well as in many other countries of the region.

We hope that today’s consultation will discuss lessons learned from project experience and institutional reforms in the sector in Kazakstan, and that you will let us know what role you wish ADB to play in water sector investments in Kazakstan over the next five to ten years.

Effective water services and sustainable water resource management are critical to economic development and poverty reduction all across the Asian region. Kazakstan is an important member country of ADB. ADB is your development bank.

Today, we hope you will use this consultation workshop to help ADB map out the direction of our future support to Kazakstan and the other countries in the Asian region with further investments, technical assistance, and regional cooperation in the water sector.

I now request my colleague Ms. Tatiana Simonova from ADB’s Kazakstan Resident
Mission to please introduce the next two distinguished speakers in this opening
program.