Water security in the Syr Darya Basin

The importance of water security has gained prominence on the international water agenda, but the focus seems to be directed towards water demand. An essential element of water security is the functioning of public organizations responsible for water supply through direct and indirect security approaches. Despite this, there has been a tendency to overlook the water security strategies of these organizations as well as constraints on their operation. This paper discusses the critical role of water supply in achieving sustainable water security and presents two case studies from Central Asia on the management of water supply for irrigated agriculture. The analysis concludes that existing water supply bureaucracies need to be revitalized to effectively address key challenges in water security

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

Rural poverty reduction: what's irrigation got to do with it?

In Wegerich, Kai; Warner, J. (Eds.). The politics of water: a survey. London, UK: Routledg

Shifting to hydrological/hydrographic boundaries: a comparative assessment of national policy implementation in the Zerafshan and Ferghana Valleys

In the literature on the implementation of national policies there is an assumption that these get implemented uniformly within one country. Here, with a focus on the implementation of national policy on shifting from administrative to hydrological/ hydrographic principles of water management in the Zerafshan Valley and the Ferghana Valley in Uzbekistan, this assumption is questioned. The case study demonstrates that national policies are resisted by lower-level bureaucrats, leading to diverse, even contradictory, outcomes of the same policy. The vested interests of a multiplicity of bureaucracies, the power of individual bureaucrats, and the discretional power given to bureaucracies in interpreting national policy are responsible for the different outcomes. The article calls for more comparative assessments across different regions for a better understanding of policy implementation

The Afghan water law: a legal solution foreign to reality?

In this article the suggested permit and license systems included in the draft Afghan Water Law of 2008 (superseding those laws of 1981 and 1991) are examined by comparing them with main canal data from two pilot studies within the Kunduz Basin. The comparison highlights the difficulty of making these proposed legal frameworks operative. Overall, it appears that the sections within the law on permits and licenses are not implementable within or even useful for the traditional irrigation systems, but mainly play into the hands of the national hydrocracy and please international donors

Have your cake and eat it too: agenda-setting in Central Asian transboundary rivers

In Arsel, M.; Spoor, M. Water, environmental security and sustainable rural development: conflict and cooperation in Central Eurasia. London, UK: Routledg

Water resources in Central Asia: regional stability or patchy make-up?

This article explores the cooperation after independence on four Central Asian transboundary rivers. The paper shows that, even though the Central Asian states agreed in 1992 to continue with the basic water-sharing principles, new agreements had to be made. New agreements were only made in basins with large-scale water-control infrastructure, which have transboundary significance or are transboundary themselves. The inequitable water allocation between the riparian states has continued and has not triggered new agreements

Politics of water in post-Soviet Central Asia

In Heaney, D. (Ed). Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia 2012. 12th ed. London, UK: Routledg

Lifting Afghanistan to become an equal riparian member within the Amu Darya Basin. Project proposal prepared by IWMI Central Asia office for the SPECA Economic Forum on Launching a plan of action to strengthen stability and sustainable development of Afghanistan through regional economic cooperation in Central Asia, Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, 7-8 June 2011

The aim of the research project is to lift Afghanistan out of the identified knowledge gap on its water resources and therefore enable Afghanistan to remove her barrier to sustainable water resource development and management in the Amu Darya basin. At the same time it is anticipated to provide transparency of the potential impact of water resource development plans as well as of on-going projects to downstream riparian states as well as the donor community - which so far seems to take an administrative rather than a resource boundary approach. The duration of the project is anticipated to be 3 years. Because of its international position IWMI Central Asia will take the lead in data generation and analysis and will collaborate with research and implementing agencies in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan