The ‘National policy framework for water governance and integrated water resources management in Uzbekistan’ programme was a part of the Transboundary water management in Central Asia Programme commissioned by the Federal Foreign Office and co-financed by the European Union. Within this project for Uzbekistan best European practice based on the EU Water Framework Directive was disseminated.
The programme brought together GIZ’s worldwide experience in supporting integrated water resources management and the expertise of its partner organisations, the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), the Council for Research and Economics in Agriculture (CREA) and the Environment Agency Austria (Umweltbundesamt). This programme component cooperated closely with the UNDP led second component on technical capacity building for water practitioners at grass-roots level. A National Working Group consisting of all national stakeholders active in the water sector was supported with recommendations, policy packages, capacity building and other measures tailor-made for the country’s needs and contributed to an improved water governance based on European / international standards.
During the project 720 mini-hydrometeorological stations were built to use smart stick technology for measuring water coming to individual fields. This technology helps to determine the best method of implementing the principle of full cost recovery and for monitoring water distribution at the level of the Water Users Association of Fergana, Andijan and Kashkadarja regions in Uzbekistan. These precise measurements also help preventing conflict among farmers, since everyone has clear accessible data on how much water was used.
This joint work is currently out scaling within another GIZ project: Uzbekistan – Sustainability and Value Added in the Cotton Economy project. The results of this project will also be used in the activities within the Green Central Asia Initiative to help reducing the loss of water within different climate change adaptation measures.
If you have further interest in the details of this success story, please continue reading here:
https://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/success-stories/how-a-simple-tool-is-reducing-conflict-and-preserving-water-in-uzbekistan/
