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April
Certifications award
Certifications Award for
International Water Resources Management Institute staff was held on April
25 2008. The researchers who worked with the IWMI for 5 or 10 years were
awarded with Commemorative Certificates and valuable presents. Certificates
were awarded to: Dr. Manthrithilake Herath, Head, IWMI Central Asia; Dr.
Asad Sarwar Qureshi, International Researcher; Mr. Murat Yakubov, Research
Officer; Mr. Ilhom Babaev, Finance and Administrative Officer; Mr. Ilya Pak
Driver/Office Assistant; Mr. Ilshat Tukhvatullin Driver/Office Assistant.
February
Workshop to discuss IV phase of
IWRM Project
Stakeholders workshop to plan the new phase of the Integrated Water Resource
Management (IWRM) project was held in Tashkent on 4-5 February.
Representatives of stakeholders from the concerned Ministries, water users
from the three Central Asian countries - Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and
Tajikistan, implementing agencies and SDC representatives from Bern, Bishkek
and Dushanbe participated.
The participants discussed the design, expected results and organizational
aspects of the next Phase, which is scheduled from 1 May 2008 to 31 December
2010.
The overall goal of the
project is contribution to more secure livelihoods, increased environmental
sustainability, and greater social harmony, through improved effectiveness
of water resources management in the Ferghana Valley. This overall goal of
the project remained unchanged for all previous phases of the project and
remains valid for this phase, too.
The emphasis here is i) to complete the IWRM water governance
and management principles introduction and consolidate experiences and
systems practiced in pilot areas, including TSRs; ii) that project outreach
WUAs are fully hydrographical, allocating and delivering water in an
equitable and reliable manner based on IWRM guidelines up to the plot level;
iii) that institutional and organizational arrangements and technologies
developed and tested are consolidated into ‘ready to go’ packages for wide
range dissemination; and iv) to develop an enabling environment for IWRM
dissemination in adjoining areas and eventually in the whole country.
The sustainability of project achievements depends on the
continuous progress on the same direction. This cannot happen, unless
governments and the supporting donors share the same vision on WUAs and WUG.
The national policies and legislations should be helpful or at least not
stop or in any way hinder such a progress. Volume/ crop based tariff systems
are in place as well as the necessary measures and instruments to encourage/
strengthen/ facilitate their implementation. In other words, it is expected
to create an enabling environment, influencing higher-level key players and
policies for consolidation and dissemination of IWRM principles and
mechanisms.
So far, no economic analysis as such was done in order to
determine financial and economic sustainability of IWRM institutions. It is
very important that these new IWRM institutions are financially and
economically viable and become self-sustaining. Moreover, the worsening
conditions of the inherited infrastructure has not been taken care of or
only insufficiently during the last 15 -20 years. This requires huge
investments now and in the future. Whether the users can take the burden of
rehabilitation or not, and if not, who should pay how much, and the users
ability to pay under current situation has to be assessed and appropriate
recommendations with emphasis on low cost but still adequate solutions need
to be given to the governments and donors.
Furthermore, it is necessary to formulate
quantitative and qualitative indicators to assess social, economic and
technical feasibility concerning the deliverables and outcomes and social
acceptability of these institutional changes. The impact of changed water
policies on environment too, shall be assessed.
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