Progress report for
Advancing evidence-based transboundary water cooperation in Central Asia
Achievement at a glance
The SIC ICWC’s commitment is designed around three main objectives: 1) DATA AND KNOWLEDGE: Establishing robust evidence and knowledge base on transboundary waters in Central Asia; 2) CAPACITY: Strengthening capacities of relevant actors in evidence-based water-related decision making; and, 3) INFLUENCE & AWARENESS: Increasing research-policy interface in water related fields. Achievements on these objectives are provided below.DATA AND KNOWLEDGE: We published series of research papers and policy briefs, four early warning bulletins, continued remote sensing-based monitoring of the South Aral Region, the Aral Sea and other water bodies, organized two expeditions to the exposed seabed of the Aral Sea. We continued developing decision support tools: the information-software package “Water management E-rules for the Amu Darya River” has been put in operation and a new tool for forecasting water availability has been tested.
We started upgrading our CAWater-Info Portal of knowledge and data, the key source of information in Central Asia in support of policy and decision making in the water sector (10 thousand visitors a day). Newly developed information products provide access to relevant regional water data. The updated format enables easy visualization and analysis of the information. The knowledge base with large collection of books, articles, legal documents in E-library and thematic knowledge bases became richer by 2 Gb of information. In addition, a new telegram channel was opened on water, energy, food and ecosystem nexus.
CAPACITY: We concluded a series of trainings on climate-smart adaptation in water planning for decision-makers in Turkmenistan where we pilot tested our approach on combining IWRM and climate adaptation and now are getting ready to scale it for other countries within this initiative.
INFLUENCE & AWARENESS: We activated our work on building partnerships at expert level: these are joint research by representatives from different countries and disciplines as a way of co-production of knowledge. These activities were undertaken on the base of the Expert Platform on Water Security, Sustainable Development, and Future Studies established at SIC ICWC, which is working on a concept for transformation of this Platform into a Regional Center of Excellence with a view to enhancing capacity of practitioners, including representation of youth and women, in the nexus approach and building trust and networks among present and future policy makers, and facilitating evidence-driven and knowledge-based cooperation in Central Asia. Several partners in and beyond Central Asia have expressed their interest to work together in this endeavor.
Challenges faced in implementation
Due to somewhat prolonged process of approval for financing the initiative, the implementation was slightly delayed.Obtaining reliable data and information for our information system and modeling purposes from relevant agencies on a timely basis is problematic. There are data gaps for some timescales and spatial dimensions. This is solved partially through purchase of data (depends on availability of funds), reconstruction of data series, and replacement by RS measurements, if appropriate.
The delay in financing caused that training activities on the regional scale could not be organized during the reporting period. Undoubtedly, this hampers peer-to-peer exchanges and regional dialogue at different levels of water decision making.
Next Steps
SIC ICWC will continue its work on promoting science-based transboundary water cooperation in Central Asia, aiming at sustainable water resources management and promoting regional development. Here, collaboration among stakeholders, utilization of advanced technologies, and capacity-building efforts will be essential for achieving sustainable water management in the region.Research and regional dialogue: SIC ICWC will continue to generate new knowledge and conduct research to support regional policy dialogue on sustainable use of water resources. The analytical support to the countries on water and related matters will be enhanced. In partnership with basin water organizations, we will work on the improvement of hydrological and water availability forecasts by developing and utilizing more advanced methods and models to enhance the accuracy and reliability of forecasts in Central Asia. In partnership with the countries, we will prepare proposals and recommendations on mutually acceptable mechanism of water-energy cooperation in CA and develop practical tools for implementation of the water-energy-land-ecosystem nexus approach at all levels.
Upgrading databases and information systems: It is planned to radically upgrade the Central Asian CAWater-Info information portal and system, with the application of remote sensing (RS) and artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the functionality of the portal. This upgrade will focus on improving data visualization, analysis, and operation capabilities to provide stakeholders with accurate and timely information on transboundary water resources. Also, the collected data and generated knowledge on the Aral Sea region will be transformed into a user-friendly geoinformation portal. This portal should serve as a valuable resource for policymakers, researchers, and the public to access spatially referenced data for further analysis and planning recovery measures.
Capacity building and building a community of experts: SIC ICWC will conduct regional-scale trainings and capacity-building activities to strengthen the capacity of different target groups in the field of water management. A concept for building a community of experts and practitioners, with special attention to young professionals and women, will be developed. Here, different options will be studied and tested to achieve sustainability and added value of such a community.
Beneficiaries
The beneficiaries are the five Central Asian countries that share transboundary water resources, such as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan in general and water stakeholders, in particular. The latter include: 1) the Interstate Commission for Water Coordination in Central Asia and its executive bodies; 2) national water, energy, environment and agriculture ministries; 3) Basin Water Organization Amu Darya and Basin Water Organization Syr Darya; 4) local water management organizations; 5) universities and academia.
Actions
Information support: Transformation of the Central Asian Water Information System: 1) Developed databases on reservoirs in Central Asia, Amu Darya and Syr Darya River basins that allow the user to have access to key characteristics of these objects in user-friendly formats to enable easy visualization and analysis of the information; 2) An interactive map of Central Asia water objects incorporated in the IS. These tools are important for those who work with regional water resources. One of the main tasks of this transformation is to enhance the climate data block given the current context of climate change and extend coverage by adding the nexus component.Production of knowledge in the following areas, among others:
- Transboundary cooperation:
SIC ICWC contributed to a number of analytical notes focused on different aspects related to transboundary waters, in particular produced analytical and information materials in support of national reporting on SDG 6.5.2, including the review on Progress in Integrated Water Resources Management and Transboundary Water Cooperation in Central Asia.
Legal and institutional mechanisms of operation, maintenance and construction of water infrastructure of interstate importance in Central Asia were studied and measures for their improvement were proposed. The results were published in the international journal: Ziganshina D (2023) Water infrastructure in Central Asia: legal and institutional frameworks. Front. Clim. 5:1284400. https://doi.org/10.3389/fclim.2023.1284400.
- Transboundary flow regulation and use planning
The Aral Sea Basin Transboundary Water Early Warning Bulletins were produced to provide all the Central Asian states and their international partners with improved capacity to monitor regularly the status of transboundary rivers and warn early of potential issues that require attention.
Practical tools were developed to help decision-makers. In particular, the computer program "Water management E-rules for the Amu Darya River" was tested successfully and adopted in daily operations of Basin Water Organization Amu Darya.
- Water-energy-land-ecosystem nexus
The discussion document “Rethinking Institutional and Financial Mechanisms on Water and Energy Cooperation in Central Asia” prepared in partnership with country experts was broadly discussed and raised interest from the side of the countries and international partners.
Capacity Building:
Training was provided for two distinct target audiences (decision-makers and district municipality specialists) and a capacity development programme of trainers was conducted to support the mainstreaming of adaptation techniques and practices in water planning in Turkmenistan in order to improve water management in the context of climate change. The training was positively evaluated by key beneficiaries, which included national authorities, academia, private sector.
SIC ICWC, jointly with its partners held workshops: on Effective water allocation in the Amu Darya river basin under climate change to improve knowledge on legal framework of regional water management and on modern methods of flow assessment and forecasting; on climate modeling and river flow assessments for hydrometeorologists, scientists and practitioners from Central Asia. These training workshops were held for those who directly deal with production of data and information in support of decision making.