ICWC Members Work Meeting within the framework of project

On July 31 – August 2, 2007, in Bishkek, the work meeting of ICWC members and representatives of thematic subgroups was held. NWG and RWG work meeting was held during the first day.

Prof. Dukhovny V.A. introduced the work progress and expressed his concerns about additional questions and remarks of approved earlier Agreement on Syrdarya river basin water and energy resource use, Tajik and Kyrgyz colleagues, delaying the works on the third thematic subgroup and significant lag of other thematic groups, except the second one.

Corresponding notes on 3 questions were prepared for ICWC Members and the discussions were held on the following items:

• draft Agreement “Syrdarya river basin water and energy resource use”,
• development of rules for procedural obligations implementation and elaboration of recommendations aimed at improvement of rules for water and energy resources(at the suggestion of KR and RT NWG “water-energy”) regulation and management in Syrdarya river basin (further subgroup No. 1),
• qualification and quantification of channel losses in down- and midstream of the Amudarya River (further thematic subgroup No. 2),
• development of Detailed Methodical Recommendations on Evaluation of Basin-wide Costs and Benefits, Data Collection and Accrued Loss Evaluation from water resources use regime (at the suggestion of NWG Tajikistan to add “and energy resources”) (further thematic subgroup No. 3),
• revision of draft Agreement on strengthening the institutional structure for transboundary water bodies management, protection, and development (further thematic subgroup No. 4)
• and revision of draft agreement on strengthening institutional structure for transboundary water resource management, protection and development (at the suggestion of NWG Tajikistan to write “water resource from interstate sources” instead of “transboundary water resources”) in the Aral Sea basin (further thematic subgroup No. 5) within the framework of ADB RETA 6163 “Improved Management of Shared Water Resources in Central Asia”.

ICWC Members from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan participated at the meeting as well as the members of national and regional thematic subgroups.

ICWC members decided the following:

• in order to prepare final version of Agreement on “Syrdarya river basin water and energy use” which would be accepted by all ICWC Members, they need to organize its discussion by work group members from four countries in the third decade of August;
• to entrust Mr. Kenshimov A. K. to lead this work, and NWG heads were given a task to think over the possibility to bring together different points of view about current agreement on Syrdarya river basin water and energy resource use before the planned meeting. Information about the results of work done will be heard at the next ICWC meting in September of the current year;
• to consider “Provisions on ICWC” as primary document and to revise the agreement on “Institutional issues” taking into account the content of the “Provisions”;
• to present approved text of draft “Provisions on ICWC” at the next ICWC meeting in September 2007;
• to note that, of 5 established work subgroups, only thematic subgroup No. 2 have completed the work according to the schedule;
• with view of finishing the work within scheduled time period, to set the following deadlines for presenting coordinated reports to ICWC: on thematic subgroup No. 1 (Khamidov M.Kh.) – November, on thematic subgroup No. 3(Yusupov R.) – November, on thematic subgroup No. 5 – October.

Members of NWG and RWG decided the following:

On the work of thematic Subgroup No. 1:

• as to development of rules for procedural obligations implementation and elaboration of recommendations aimed at improvement of rules for water-energy resource (at the suggestion of Kyrgyz Republic and RT) regulation and management in Syrdarya river basin, ToR is not approved by NWG Kyrgyzstan, NWG Tajikistan and NWG Uzbekistan. Materials on energy resource section were provided only by Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, while none of the countries presented proposals for water resource section. Regional group presented the outline of regional report and distributed it among NWG Members for filling.
• NWG Kazakhstan made amendments and changes to the regional group’s proposals. Materials presented by NWG Kazakhstan and NWG Kyrgyzstan on energy issues were discussed. Due to lag in Terms of Reference (ToR) coordination, national work groups of Kyrgyz Republic, the Republic of Tajikistan and the Republic of Uzbekistan should accelerate the ToR coordination process, prepare proposals on the rules for procedural obligations implementation, and present them in accordance with the Terms of Reference before September 15, 2007.

On the work of thematic Subgroup No. 2:

• submit current report for approval by MWR of Turkmenistan and MAWR of Uzbekistan as well as for consideration and examination by Ministry of Land Reclamation and Water Resources of Tajikistan and Water Resources Department of Kazakhstan.
• consider it rational to continue current work in order to evaluate similar losses above Kelif cross-section in the territory of Tajikistan.
• under appropriate financing in 2008-2011, specify obtained cameral results on a set of selected field measurements in the areas with the highest channel losses.

On the work of Subgroup No. 3:

• appoint Yusupov R.K. the Head of Subgroup at the suggestion of Tajik party;
• collect all the existing last period’s information on current issue;
• accept the proposal of Yusupov R. K., and every country is to present the concepts on elaboration of methodical recommendation in order to develop unified ToR and submit it to the Head of the group and Head of the Project by August 20, 2007.
• organize work meeting in Tashkent during the first decade of the month, taking into account the opinions of parties, in order to adopt final ToR, methodology of work and action plan.
• present collected materials on Basin-wide costs and benefits for joint consideration and analysis.
• NWG members of CA countries should submit their proposals to project manager on unified ToR on elaboration of methodical recommendations by August 20, 2007.

On the work of thematic Subgroup No. 4:

• In accordance with the Protocol of ICWC Members’ meting, representatives of Subgroup No. 4 completed consideration and coordination of “Provisions on ICWC” while the disagreements on three issues still remained. Complete coordination (of Provisions) and development of works on completion of “Agreement on institutional structure” by the beginning of September 2007; RWG, taking into account approved provisions of the first document, should make amendments to draft “Agreement”;

On the work of thematic Subgroup No. 5:

• NWGs Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are to present their suggestions about specified list of objects in the Amudarya river basin before September 1, 2007;
• BWO "Syrdarya", NWGs Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are to prepare the list of interstate objects in the Syrdarya river basin before September 1, 2007:
• finish the report before September 15, 2007.