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Session Report on Regional Cooperation in Shared Water Resources in Central Asia - Past Experiences and Future Challenges
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Name of Conveners:
Libor Jansky, United Nations University
Tumurdavaa Bayarsaihan, Asian Development Bank
Victor A. Duchovny, Intestate Coordination Water Commission
Session Code: ASIA - 02
Reporter/Rapporteur: Libor Jansky
Contact E-mail: jansky@hq.unu.edu
Upon independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, the five Central Asia states sharing the Aral Sea coast, namely Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan, inherited the inadequate management system that had been neglecting environmental sustainability. Beyond that they also have been put into the situation where they need to find new ways of cooperation among themselves for vital water and environmental management. Since independence a little more than a decade ago, the Central Asian republics have been striving to develop fair and rational bases for sharing and using their water and energy resources among the republics that were previously united in a single country. Inheriting a legacy of unsustainable economic development and environmental mismanagement, these republics have dealt with extreme economic inefficiencies and ecological damage during a transition to market economies. Cooperative sharing of these resources among the republics has substantial consequences for the long-term prosperity and security of the region.
Given the great dependence of the Central Asian economies on irrigated agriculture, the issue of water allocation, both quantity and timing, has emerged as a major factor in the republics' development. The development of agreements on the use of the region's shared water resources is in an early stage. How this issue is finally settled will have substantial consequences for the long-term prosperity of these republics.
The environmental disaster of the Aral Sea has taken place in the catchment over last 40 years. The disaster include deterioration of health of local residents due to contamination in air and water, unemployment due to disappearance of fishing in the lake, salinization of newly developed irrigated farmlands. Some observers have argued that the decline water flow into the Aral Sea and the consequent shrinkage were a result of regional, if not global, long-term changes in climate conditions, which reduced the amount of melting snow in the upstream mountains. However, others have argued more convincingly, that the demise of the Aral Sea was the direct a sole result of water diversion by humans from the two major rivers, flowing into the Aral, namely the Amudarya and the Syrdarya. That is to say, it was due to a strong belief - at that time - in the "makebility" of the environment by large engineering projects performed in the region during the Soviet era. Despite of international efforts led by the UNEP and the World Bank in the past, very limited progress has been made basin-wide. This session aims at identifying the realistic approaches to deal with the issue under new circumstances by joint efforts of the key stakeholders, including governments and regional organizations of Central Asia, academic world and international development partners.
Here, the five basin countries had to face a big dilemma - irrigation to promote and maintain agriculture, or saving the Aral Sea. This is a typical question that many countries in the world have asked themselves in recent history - giving priority to economic development, or to environment protection? The basin countries thought that ten years of joint water resources management and use in Central Asia has resulted in successful attempts at finding sustainable solutions to water issues and they been helped to mitigate crisis situations, including:
These actions have created confidence among the countries allowing them to undertake additional and sustained actions, such as the revitalization of IFAS and the ASBP.
The Central Asian republics have made great progress during the past ten years in the area of cooperative management of shared water resources, especially through the interstate water collaboration and multi-stakeholder partnership. However, there are many issues that remain unresolved and many areas that need continued development, including:
Consideration of the linkages of water management with the environment, social development and other economic sectors is essential for the sustainable development of Central Asia and will require:
Implementing the Regional Ecological Action Plan for the Central Asian republics will require:
The immediate goal should be to substantially contribute to environmental stabilization and improved management of this trans-boundary water systems by providing support for formulating coherent national and regional environmental management policies and strategies. Improvement of reservoirs and dam management, more intensive monitoring of trans-boundary water flows in terms of both - quality and quantity - and rehabilitation of wetlands in the Aral Sea deltas should also be in the list of necessary actions to be taken. It is also necessary to raise awareness among the general public on the complex nature of the issue, and to educate them to understand how to conserve water and to accept political decisions which may at times appear burdensome.
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