Report on water user group support activities along IWRM Ferghana Project

Water users Associations / Farmer participation / Irrigation programs / Central Asia / Uzbekistan / Tajikistan

“Bright spots” in Uzbekistan, reversing land and water degradation while improving livelihoods: key developments and sustaining ingredients for transition economies of the former Soviet Union

Irrigated farming / Water quality / Drainage / Soil fertility / Crop yield / Investment / Uzbekistan / Bukhara Province / Zarafshan River / Dijzzakh Province / Syrdarya Province

Groundwater use in irrigated agriculture in Amudarya River Basin in socio-economic dimensions

Presented during the Third international conference on irrigation and drainage held March 30 - April 2, 2005 in San Diego, California. The theme of the conference was "Water district management and governance."Includes bibliographical references.The paper analyses groundwater resources use in socio-economic context in Amudarya River Basin. The paper discusses present extent of groundwater resources use and special focus is on agriculture, livestock use and small farmers in their homegardens. Institutional and social pattern of groundwater resources use, allocation, monitoring and distribution are other aspects that reviewed. After the collapse of former Soviet Union with its old water resources management mechanism and infrastructure, new underdeveloped systems are being practiced over Amudarya River Basin. Many assessment reports haven't considered Afghanistan in their analysis for water allocation. In Afghanistan, after the end of civil war, irrigated lands are being expanded and the share of groundwater use is increasing too according to the recent reports and assessment projects by international institutions and local scholars. Local farmers use water from boreholes and wells for their water supply systems in order to range livestock and grow crops for sustaining their livelihoods. For example, in Afghanistan karezes (traditional groundwater extraction structure) are widely documented as main extraction methods. Many farmers and settlements use different water extraction mechanisms for withdrawing water. Some drill new boreholes and some renovate old wells. Majority of locals does not have access to machinery pumps and do not have funds for purchasing or renting such pumps for practicing irrigated agriculture. Economic aspects are discussed in broader sense and results are taken from farmers' interviews, personal communication with national hydrogeologists. In general, may farmers claim that it is worth to invest in finding groundwater for producing agricultural products and rearing livestock. Groundwater resources becoming alternative source of supply for irrigated agriculture, livestock ranching worldwide. Amudarya River basin (Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan) countries due to its climatic characteristics, economic development strategies and geopolitical situation have been experiencing everlasting competition over water resources. Mostly arid, agrarian countries pursue their own development and integration into global community through expanding irrigated lands, growing cash crops such as cotton, rice and wheat for meeting their domestic food security.Sponsored by USCID; co-sponsored by Association of California Water Agencies and International Network for Participatory Irrigation Management

Institutional reforms at main canal level and their water allocation and yield impacts : A case from South Ferghana Canal, Uzbekistan

Institutional development / Organizational change / Water users associations / Irrigation management / Canals / Water allocation / Water distribution / Irrigated farming / Cotton / Wheat / Yields / Uzbekistan / South Ferghana Canal

Re-examining conflict and cooperation in Central Asia: a case study from the Isfara River, Ferghana Valley

While conflict and cooperation in Central Asia are mainly focused on the larger basins (Amu and Syr Darya) and the implementation of the agreement reached directly after independence (1991), here an analysis of the history of water-sharing agreements in the Isfara Basin is presented. The paper reveals that there have been fierce negotiations and renegotiations even during the Soviet Union period between the Central Asian riparian republics; agreement was reached mainly though engineering solutions that brought more water to the basin. The paper highlights that although water-sharing agreements were reached early on, the technical capability of implementing these agreements was lacking. Similarly, even after independence, agreements had been reached but lack of water control hindered their implementation.Keywords: Cooperation, Isfara River, Conflict, Small transboundary tributaries, Ferghana Valley, Water management, Big Ferghana CanalThis is the publisher’s final pdf. The published article is copyrighted by the author(s) and published by Taylor & Francis Inc

Report on water user group support activities along IWRM Ferghana Project

Unpublished repor

The Costs of Benefit Sharing: Historical and Institutional Analysis of Shared Water Development in the Ferghana Valley, the Syr Darya Basin

Ongoing discussions on water-energy-food nexus generally lack a historical perspective and more rigorous institutional analysis. Scrutinizing a relatively mature benefit sharing approach in the context of transboundary water management, the study shows how such analysis can be implemented to facilitate understanding in an environment of high institutional and resource complexity. Similar to system perspective within nexus, benefit sharing is viewed as a positive sum approach capable of facilitating cooperation among riparian parties by shifting the focus from the quantities of water to benefits derivable from its use and allocation. While shared benefits from use and allocation are logical corollary of the most fundamental principles of international water law, there are still many controversies as to the conditions under which benefit sharing could serve best as an approach. Recently, the approach has been receiving wider attention in the literature and is increasingly applied in various basins to enhance negotiations. However, relatively little attention has been paid to the costs associated with benefit sharing, particularly in the long run. The study provides a number of concerns that have been likely overlooked in the literature and examines the approach in the case of the Ferghana Valley shared by Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan utilizing data for the period from 1917 to 2013. Institutional analysis traces back the origins of property rights of the transboundary infrastructure, shows cooperative activities and fierce negotiations on various governance levels. The research discusses implications of the findings for the nexus debate and unveils at least four types of costs associated with benefit sharing: (1) Costs related to equity of sharing (horizontal and vertical); (2) Costs to the environment; (3) Transaction costs and risks of losing water control; and (4) Costs as a result of likely misuse of issue linkages