Special Issue "Challenges and Developments on Water Resources Management in Central Asia"

Guest Editor
Dr. Iskandar Abdullaev
Natural Resources and Social Dynamics, Department of Political and Cultural Change, ZEF Center for Development Research, University of Bonn, Walter-Flex-Straße 3, 53113 Bonn, Germany
Website: http://131.220.109.9/staff/784.html
E-Mail:
Interests: water resources management; irrigation; water users associations; socio-technical analysis

No papers have been published in this special issue yet, see below for planned papers.

Dear Colleagues,

The water management in post soviet Central Asia is becoming more a social and political process rather than a straightforward techno-technological issue. Nowadays, there is not any more a “proletariat and rural working class” in Central Asia, rather a much more diverse group of agricultural producers with different interests and resources. The message to the policy makers, rural developers and international donors is that if the emerging trends in water management are ignored, the reform or rehabilitation plans will most likely fail to improve the irrigation water management. The technical artefacts, such as rehabilitation of the irrigation system, improving pumps, and decreasing losses, alone do not address the growing social differentiation and competition for water. In this context, the best option would be to couple such technological solutions with very thoroughly designed socio-institutional measures.

Iskandar Abdullaev, Ph. D.
Guest Editor

Title: Setting up Transboundary Water Management Stage for Central Asia
Author: Vadim Sokolov
Affiliation: SIC ICWC, E-mail: vadim@icwc-aral.uz
Abstract: After collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the main rivers in Central Asia (Amudarya, Syrdarya, Zeravshan and many others) became transboundary. Water resources of these rivers are an object of competing interests and thus – by definition – a potential source of conflict. The history of Central Asian water management during last 17 years has fortunately been a tale of conflict resolution. Every agreement and institution established to manage the variety of water stakeholder interests has performed basic conflict resolution functions, some more effective than others. During the Soviet period, the Aral Sea Basin (the biggest part of Central Asia) was managed as an integrated economic unit. Economic priorities, defined by Moscow, dictated that water was allocated to optimize agricultural production and provision of hydroelectricity was a second priority. Thus integrated, centrally designed, and without concern of local interests, it was possible to operate an optimal schedule for energy and water management. With independence the integrated economic system broke down. Each country began to redefine its own economic priorities. The scene was set for intense competition and international donors have since sought to stabilize the region by creating a wide range of water projects. After years of assistance, however, the international community only now re-discovers that the interdependencies of the Soviet Union can be used to foster mutual cooperation. The Aral Sea crisis has been viewed primarily as a water problem, not an opportunity for collaboration and economic development by trading energy for water, for example. Central Asian stakeholders are consequently scrambling to establish effective conflict resolution mechanisms applying for transboundary issues. In principle, such a mechanism does three things: It ensures information flow, secures fair treatment, and creates sustainable processes. By ensuring a flow of information between parties, a conflict resolution mechanism will allow greater degrees of transparency and predictability in the relation between parties, and ultimately build op trust. Fair treatment is the main ingredient for achieving accountability among a group of actors. Fairness is a universal value with local expressions. In water management, agreed quotas may serve as a measure of fairness. Likewise, a third party arbiter or a joint council appointed by all parties could invoke the level of objectiveness needed for parties to comply. Sustainable processes are keys to stability over time. By continuously providing a horizon with options, the parties invest resources and trust in a joint mechanism. When the mechanism is self-financing and governed effectively, the incentives to participation will be inherent to the system and need no external inducement. The paper will describe successes and failures of past regional efforts and experiences to setting transboundary collaboration. The paper has both a retrospective and forward-looking perspective. It will identify lessons learned and will try to judge whether or not past and current actions have been or are efficient in preventing water related conflicts, and whether the level of coordination is enough for future.

Title: Alternative Water Allocation in Kyrgyzstan: Lessons from Lower Colorado River Basin and New South Wales Practices
Authors: A.Karimov, D.Morton, A.Noble, M. Yakubov, N.Mirzaev, A. Alimdjanov, J.Kazbekov, K.Jumabaev, E-mails: a.karimov@cgiar.org, j.kazbekov@cgiar.org
Abstract: Focus group discussion and modelling approach were applied to determine policy and regulatory refinements for current water allocation practices in Kyrgyzstan. Lessons from Lower Colorado River basin, Texas and New Southern Wales were taken into consideration. Water allocation studies from Lower Colorado River basin suggested that the two policy instruments could be considered. They are: rights for effective water use according to the natural regime of river runoff (run-of-river rights), and the adoption of double-level water tariffs for water delivery services. Water relations studies in New South Wales revealed another alternative water allocation scenario. On regulated rivers this is access license rule which confers a right for annual water allocation only to the extent that water is actually available. The paper analyses impact of adopting some of these interventions in socio-environmental conditions of Kyrgyzstan. For this, optimization model of water distribution for river basin was developed using GAMS 2.25 software. Application the model for Akbura river basin indicated efficiency of the proposed institutional rule especially in water shortage years. Findings from the comparative analysis propose that there should be considerable gains from policy and regulatory refinements of current water allocation practices in Kyrgyzstan. The model results indicate that farmers can get higher profits by reallocating part of irrigation water from the first to the second crops. Water organizations income will be increased due to intensive cropping system and increased farmer incomes.
Keywords: water allocation, modelling, water tariff, double cropping

Title: Estimation of Spatial and Temporal Variability of Crop Specific Water Productivity with Incomplete Data – In the Case of the Khorezm Region, Uzbekistan
Authors: Maksud Bekchanov, Aziz Karimov, Marc Mueller, E-mail: maksud@zef.uzpak.uz
Abstract: In the conditions of high risk of water shortage, water productivity takes place of the crop yield in order to plan activities in irrigated agriculture. However, due to lack of data on parameters used for the different crops it is not usually possible to assess efficiency indicators like water productivity. Except the area of cropped lands all input values are usually available in highly aggregated form. The paper highlights how to obtain crop specific input data with incomplete input data by using mixed estimation method. On the basis of taken values of water usage, spatial (for different regions of Khorezm) and temporal (for the 4 years, 2004-2007) distribution of water productivity were estimated. Analyses showed that off-stream regions consume much water than up-stream regions because of much amount of water lost during the transportation. More water is used in field for all crops except forage compared to recommended norm values. Cotton consumes almost 71 % more water than the norm value which means very high water looses in cotton production. Main consumers of irrigation water are cotton and rice. Rice consumes almost 30 % of total irrigation water nevertheless its small share (nearly 1/10th) in total crop land. Water productivity also correlated highly with the distance from the water source due to high conveyance looses and low yields in tail ends of the irrigation system. Relatively higher productivity increase by the years from 2004 to 2007 was observed. It can be explained by the slight increase in yields and the significant decrease in total water intake during the observed period. The results of the study can be used further to construct production functions to analyze the impacts of various factors to the yield increase.
Keywords: water allocation, Mixed Estimation Method, water use efficiency, contour diagram

Title: Socio-economic Evaluation of Different Water Saving Approaches
Authors: Maksud Bekchanov, John Lamers, Christopher Martius, E-mail: maksud@zef.uzpak.uz
Abstract: Increased frequency of water shortages and increased demand for agricultural commodities at the lower reaches of Amudarya bringing a need to use water resources more effectively in irrigated agriculture where overall water use efficiency does not exceed 25 %. Although there are offered several best practices of effective water use, usually they have not been introduced widely due to their high initial investment cost or unawareness of newly formed farmers without much experience. To more briefly investigate productivity potentials of water-wise techniques this study aims to highlight water saving efficiency (WSE), economic efficiency (EE), and financial viability (FV) of several water conservation methods which are selected via expert survey. Results showed that all selected options have substantial potentials of water saving with promising economic efficiency. Economic efficiency in this case expressed as net income change due to partial budget analysis and initial investment requirement taken as a measure of financial viability. On the basis of obtained data on WSE, EE, and FV all options are ranked and classified due to their efficiency parameters. According to the classification crop pattern change, in this case some rice area replaced to maize for grain, has the highest WSE and FV despite its lower EE. Less capital consumptive measures such as Alternate Dry Furrow, Shorter Furrow and Double-Sided Flow have low WSE but these techniques can be easily adopted since they have high FV. Techniques with high water saving level such as drip irrigation require high initial investment cost that cannot be affordable by most farmers. So, high cash crops such as fruits and vegetables can be cultivated by using drip methods providing higher profit as the method contributes also yield increase. Cotton and wheat market liberalization policies, which means reducing or abolishing procurement prices, should take place in order to provide cotton and wheat growers with high water efficient technologies.
Keywords: water conservation, Khorezm region, financial viability, water saving efficiency, ranking and classification

Title: Facts and Perspectives of Water Reservoirs in Central Asia: A Special Focus on Uzbekistan
Authors: Shavkat Rakhmatullaev, Frédéric Huneau, Philippe Le Coustumer, Mikael Motelica-Heino
Affiliation: Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Melioration (Uzbekistan), Université de Bordeaux 1 (France), Université d'Orléans (France), E-mail: rakhmatullaev@rambler.ru
Abstract: The fundamental and extremely fast political transformation of the Central Asian region (collapse of the Former Soviet Union and emergence of new National States), induced the implosion of the unified physical hydraulic infrastructure and its institutional management systems. Land-locked Central Asian countries with their climatic conditions, transboundary water resource origin have been striving to meet their food security, increase agricultural crop export, sustain energy sectors and environment. During soviet time, the water resources development programs have been launched to regulate the main Central Asian Rivers (Amu Darya, Syr Darya and Zerafshan) and re-distribution of river flow later for irrigation. This paper gives an overview on the water reservoirs created by dam constructions on river systems. The existing water reservoirs are strategic infrastructures for regulation of water, water supply, hydropower generation and recreation in this region of the world. The mighty Amu Darya and Syr Darya Rivers are almost fully regulated by web of small barrages and large dams. They have been planned upstream for the regulation of the river flow and to increase the hydropower generation opportunities, respectively in Tajikistan and Afghanistan for the Amu Darya River watershed and in Kyrgyzstan for the Syr Darya River one. The upstream countries (Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan) favor the reservoirs operation for energy supply while the downstream countries (Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan) push on irrigation use. Thus, the transboundary aspects impact the normal operation of such reservoirs and for example, the uncoordinated operation of Toktogul reservoir has caused the Arnasay Lake creation which became a problem. The paper overviews the role of man-made water reservoirs in Central Asia from the historical context and discusses the current challenges and perspectives (technical, institutional) of their operation with special focus on Uzbekistan.
Keywords: transboundary water management, dam & barrage, water reservoirs, irrigation, hydropower, policy