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

Guest Editor
Dr. Iskandar Abdullaev
Transboundary Water Management in Central Asia Programme Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH Abdullaev Str. 2a Yakkasaroy Rayon, Uzbekistan
Website: http://www.waterca.org
E-Mail: iskandar.abdullaev@giz.de
Phone: +998 71 140 04 89 (ext. 203)
Fax: +998 71 140 04 45
Interests: water resources management; irrigation; water users associations; socio-technical analysis

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

Submission

All manuscripts should be submitted to water@mdpi.com with a copy to the Guest Editor. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. Papers will be published continuously (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page.

Water is an international peer-reviewed Open Access monthly journal published by MDPI. Open Access publication is free of charge for manuscripts submitted in 2009 and 2010, and published in the first few issues of Water. English correction fees and/or formatting fees of 250 CHF will be billed in certain cases (250 CHF per paper for those papers that require extensive additional formatting and/or English corrections).

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: 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