Towards the 6^th World Water Forum — Cooperative Actions for Water Security

Dear participants of the conference!

Let me cordially welcome the participants of the Regional conference organized within the preparatory process to the Sixth World Water Forum, the high-profile experts, scientists and the representatives of international organizations, ecological movements, as well as financial institutions.

It would be no exaggeration to say that since the ancient times water has been treated in our region as the highest valuable thing and the source of life and well-being. From time immemorial, the two great rivers – Amudarya and Syrdarya – have supplied the Central Asian population with sufficient water for drinking, irrigated farming, and agriculture, primarily food production. It was particularly this venue, where many centuries ago one of the first irrigation and reasonable water using systems on Earth was built.

At the turn of the 21st century, for the people in Central Asia, as well as in other regions in the world, the issue of reasonable and fair use of water resources acquires a vital importance since thoughtless regulation of large transboundary rivers which was undertaken in the last century brought our region close to an ecological catastrophe.

This is illustrated by the tragedy of Aral, which virtually as short as in one generation has been transformed from the unique and very beautiful sea into a drying up and disappearing water basin, while the area adjacent to Aral, being formerly a flowering oasis, is turning into a desert.

Not only the people living in the disaster area but rather the Central Asian region as a whole are finding themselves in the zone of a continuous environmental risk, under impact of a number of factors affecting life quality, health, and gene pool.

The shortage of water resources, withdrawal of agricultural land out of production, critical reduction of flora and fauna, change of climate, and rapid melting of mountain glaciers on Pamir and Tien Shan, where the bulk of flow of the main regional rivers is formed – all these are only a short list of consequences of disappearance of the Aral Sea.

Therefore, the issues of reasonable use of the region’s transboundary river waters which at all times supported the vital needs of the states located in their basin became a particularly topical. Today more than 50 million people who reside in six states of this region depend on well-grounded approach and decisions on the use of water resources, firstly, of the watercourse of transboundary rivers.

Uzbekistan supports decisions of the Fifth World Water Forum that the access to drinking water is a fundamental human right and that water crisis is much hazardous than the energy and financial ones.

In this context, the projects the implementation of which may lead to total water shortage and catastrophic anthropogenic, ecological, economic and social consequences pose a profound threat to efficient water use.

This is especially relevant when the issues related to ensuring food security are at the forefront since they directly depend on sustainability of irrigated agriculture and availability of water resources in sufficient quantity during the vegetation season.

Disregard of these serious challenges shall pose a risk to prospective sustainable development and virtually to the lives of tens of millions of people in Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

Moreover, the sites of proposed construction of giant hydraulic structures are in a zone of seismicity, which was proved and evident in repeated 9 point-strong earthquakes. In case of strong earthquakes that were observed repeatedly in this region, a fatal anthropogenic catastrophe threatening hundreds of thousands people could occur.

Today the humankind is confronting the important task, i.e. to preserve the nature for current and future generations and protect it from threats and challenges that can affect the lives of people and undermine the existing system of the nature use.

In this context, the need to develop mechanisms for effective regional cooperation, which shall guarantee the use of transboundary waters on the basis of generally recognized international norms and regulations for mutual benefit and equitability for each of the parties becomes vitally important.

The problems of rational usage of water resources, maintaining the hydrological balance on the regional and global scale, preserving and saving water, improving land farming which ensure reduction of water use, modernizing the water infrastructure and adoption of the latest water-saving technologies are in fact brought to agenda by our life for our close consideration and concerned discussion.

Allow me express confidence that the outcomes of the Regional Conference in Tashkent shall become a reliable basis for further fruitful collaboration for the purposes of achieving the Millennium Development Goals and shall make a weighty contribution to the preparation of the Sixth World Water Forum.

I wish all of the participants a fruitful work and further success in this important and noble endeavor.

Yours Sincerely,

Islam Karimov
President of the Republic of Uzbekistan