Regional Water Forum opens in Central Asia and the Caucasus
July 14, Astana - A landmark meeting on the issue of water organized by IFI monitoring Working Group in the Central Asia and Caucasus region opened today in Astana, Kazakhstan.
The three-day conference brought together civil society organizations from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Government officials from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan also joined the event to present their views on regional cooperation regarding common water resources.
Mr. Ryabtsev Anatoliy Dmitrievich from the Committee on Water Resources of the Kazakhstan Ministry of Agriculture opened the proceedings with a speech asking for greater collaboration between civil society and state agencies regarding the most pressing water issues in the region. The official also announced that the Kazakh government intends to ratify the 1997 UN Convention on International Watercourses very soon. Last September, the Uzbek government signed the same international accord ten years after the convention was agreed in the UN General Assembly. The only country in the region to have signed the UN Convention so far is Uzbekistan.
The water dialogue is taking place amidst a continuing debate surrounding regional cooperation and finding the right balance between upstream and downstream countries regarding the management of water resources. In her introduction address to participants to the Water Forum, Maya Eralieva, Central Asia and Caucasus Coordinator of NGO Forum on ADB said, "[t]he major objective of the Water Forum is to address the problems and probable mechanisms for the regional cooperation on the shared water resources in the region." The water forum also reflects the controversy currently plaguing the UN, which is considering whether water should be treated as a human right or an economic good. The leading human rights activist from Kyrgyz Republic, Zulfia Marat, in her presentation denouncing the World Bank and the ADB accepted the principle of water as an economic commodity and strongly recommended that water should be placed for social benefit.
Among other pressing topics, the event focused on the urgent need to democratize the management and control of water resources. NGO representatives from Kazakhstan and Armenia delivered timely analysis and critical perspectives regarding recent experience with the formation of public-oriented groups such as basin councils and water users associations.
Mr. Jusumatov Esen Jusumatovich from the water department of the Kyrgyz government and who prepared the country's water users association (WAU) policy responded to various concerns from NGOs regarding WAUs.
The water forum tackled hydropower issues with respect to the effect posed by increasingly severe climate change and natural disasters such as earthquakes. Irshad Abbasov, Chairman of Eko-Renaissance --a public Union in Azerbaijan--elaborated the impacts of climate change on the Azerbaijan environment and water resources. The Water Forum will be discussing the role of World Bank and the Asian Development Bank on water sectors in the region tomorrow. #