The meeting "Evaluation of the benefits of regional water cooperation in Central Asia: the benefits for Kazakhstan"
In October 14, 2016 held a meeting of the Working Group on the study "Evaluation of the benefits of regional water cooperation in Central Asia: the benefits for Kazakhstan."
Earlier, on 20-22nd of June 2016 was held the International Conference "Cooperation on Environment and Sustainable Development in Central Asia" in the framework of the jubilee events dedicated to the 15th anniversary of the creation and CAREC activities in the Central - Asian region. Parallel Session "Water cooperation in Central Asia" was held within the conference. The meeting noted the need to enhance trust and strengthening water cooperation in Central Asia. Following the recommendations, the benefits of CAREC starts the evaluation process on water cooperation in Central Asia and the formation of an expert working group to study the challenge. Participants for the working expert group meeting were nominated by representatives from the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, of the Ministry of National Economy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Committee for Emergency Situations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Committee for Water Resources under the Ministry of Agriculture.
CAREC is planning to prepare an analytical report, which takes into account the national interests of the CA countries in the field of environmental and water cooperation, which will serve as a tool to assist countries in the development of common positions in international and regional processes (e.g. 2030 SDGs, support for global climate change processes and others), which provide support for regional initiatives and trends, and effective use of resources and capacity of the international financial institutions and processes and bringing them into perspective for the CA needs and requirements. The report will include the identification of the benefits and potential benefits of greater cooperation (except for water distribution) in the water sector, in particular, will serve as a conceptual basis for countries to implement measures that will bring potential benefits to countries and identify areas needed for improvement of cooperation. This evaluation will perform qualitative and quantitative analysis of the benefits for the countries and identify future joint actions for international donors and financial institutions for their effective promotion of CA in improving environmental and water cooperation in the region, which is based on the national priorities of countries.
This is the first meeting of the Working Group, which aims to study the current state and prospects of development of water cooperation in Central Asia, national interests and the country's development strategy. Taken technical and other activities to adapt to the existing system of inter-sectoral cooperation in water management issues of the CA countries to identify new areas for urgent joint action to improve water cooperation. Definitions of common contact points, the common position, including the thematic aspects (climate change, drought, floods, and on the prevention of natural disasters, etc.) and to identify new approaches and the potential for overall strengthening of the water cooperation.