Working meeting to discuss regional water policy

A work meeting for discussion of the regional water policy was held on 3-4 April 2007 in Tashkent within the framework of ADB RETA 6163 “Improved Management of Shared Water Resources in Central Asia”. The meeting was attended by representatives from water and energy agencies (except energy specialist from the Kyrgyz Republic) of the countries in the Syrdarya river basin, representatives of BWO “Syrdarya”, UDC “Energy” and “UZGIP” Co Ltd (successor of “Sredazgiprovodkhlopok”).

The meeting was organized for additional agreeing of items in articles 6 and 8 of the draft Agreement on the Use of Water and Energy Resources in the Syrdarya River Basin” according to remarks of Tajik NWG.

At the meeting of working groups in Ashkhabad on 8-10 March 2007, it was decided under item 6.2 to include “water resources allocation according to the Corrective Note to the revised Scheme for integrated use and protection of water resources in the Syrdarya river basin” in the text of the draft Agreement, and give an extract from the Scheme for water allocation among the states in Annex. For more accurate definition of these data, M.P. Gulyayev, developer of the Scheme, representative of “UZGIP” Co Ltd, was invited to the meeting in Tashkent.

During the discussion, article 6 “Allocation of Water Resources” in the draft Agreement was revised and supplemented with Annex “Allocation of Water Resources from the Syrdarya River Channel”, with detailed components on environmental protection in the Syrdarya lowlands, sanitation flows and supply to the Aral Sea.

At the end of the discussion, article 8 “Mechanism for Ensuring Water-Energy Regimes of the Naryn-Syrdarya Reservoir Cascade”, items 8.3, 8.4, and 8.5 were revised and item 8.12 was included.

At the meeting, Tajik NWG submitted amendments to other articles in the draft Agreement, which were distributed to the participants but were not considered due to the decision made by ICWC on 8-10 March 2007 (item 3.1 of the Protocol).

The participants decided:

1. to agree amendments made to articles 6 and 8 in the draft Agreement.
2. ask Tajik NWG to send proposed amendments to other agreed items of the draft Agreement on the Use of Water and Energy Resources in the Syrdarya River Basin to ICWC members for consideration by 12 April 2007 after signature of NWG Leader to discuss at the next 47th Meeting under item 4 of the agenda.