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Improving the Management of Scarce Water
Resources in Central Asia's Ferghana Valley
The Ferghana Valley, one of Central Asia's most densely
populated agricultural and industrial areas, is divided among the
three sovereign states of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. In
recent years, increasing competition for scarce water resources has
sparked local conflicts with potential international ramifications.
The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) has been in the
vanguard of efforts to improve the way water in the region is
managed and enact key reforms aimed at preventing future water
wars.
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A group of farmers
having a discussion in the Ferghana valley, Central Asia. Through
this project IWMI established the principle of user participation,
taking it a step higher in the water resources management
hierarchy, above the secondary canal level, where community-based
WUAs are established.
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The project has successfully increased the involvement of all
stakeholders-from informal user groups, to formal user
associations, to public-government partnerships ¾ in water
management issues, while linking to national policy. For example,
new water user associations have been established along the
Aravan-Akbura Canal in Kyrgyzstan, the Khoja-Bakirgan Canal in
Tajikistan and the South Ferghana Canal in Uzbekistan. A massive
campaign was launched to involve local governments, water
management organizations, NGOs, industries, and other water users
in the governance of these canals. Joint public governing bodies
were initially established as Canal Water Committees, but later
transformed into higher-level Unions of Canal Water Users (UCWU)
with increasingly refined responsibilities.
Since current legal frameworks in the three countries are not
conducive to enacting reforms and strengthening national water
laws, the project also plans to publish policy briefs to mobilize
support for legal and regulatory changes at the highest national
level.
What kind of measurable impact has the project had? Water
ministries in all three countries have approved the project's
conceptual framework for integrated water management. In July 2003,
the Uzbek Government took the further step of deciding to
restructure and realign its entire water management system along
hydraulic boundaries by issuing a special decree, "On
Reforming Water Management."
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