Economic Transition and Water Reform in Central Asia
by: David McCauley
Water policies and
institutions in Central Asia are still being adjusted almost ten years
after the break-up of the Soviet Union in response to two challenges.
First, the Central Asian Republics (CARs)-Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan,
Tajikistan and Turkmenistan-were forced to sort out their market and
democratic transitions, including their effects on water management.
Second, they were faced with an interlinked water and energy management
system that had been designed to operate within the confines of one
country that was suddenly shared by five sovereign states. Moreover,
the gross inefficiencies and dire ecological consequences of the Aral
Sea Basin water management system are renowned and add to these countries'
problems. The histories and economies of the CARs are sufficiently intertwined
to have elicited some similarities in their responses to common challenges.
But their differences-particularly reflecting upstream versus downstream
perspectives and contrasting degrees of market-based economic transformation-can
clearly be seen both within each country and at the regional level.
The extent of market-oriented
transformation in a republic's economy largely is mirrored in the approaches
taken to water sector reform. Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are the most
progressive states-both in terms of their market-based economic reforms
and the degree to which they are experimenting with such innovations
as water pricing and the transfer of irrigation management authority
to water user associations. Tajikistan is also relatively forward thinking
both in its national economic transition and its water policies-including
efforts to achieve cost recovery for the provision of water services
and to empower local water users. But these reforms are hampered by
continued civil strife in the country. With the region's largest irrigated
agriculture sector and much of this in desert areas, Uzbekistan is beginning
to face up to the need to increase agricultural water use efficiency
and to link this with gradual market-based reforms in this key sector.
Turkmenistan remains mired in a set of social and economic structures
(including those relating to water management) that have scarcely changed-with
a few exceptions at the local level-since Soviet times.
Despite continuing
regional challenges, there also has been some progress at this level.
The level of the Aral Sea seems on track at least to be stabilized.
A 1998 interstate agreement on water and hydropower management for the
Syr Darya River (shared by four CARs) provides a framework for conflict
resolution and negotiated annual water release schedules for irrigation
and hydropower-plus a scheme whereby downstream irrigated states compensate
upstream hydropower producers. Water reform at the national level cannot
be separated from this regional context. The experience of this region
offers some interesting lessons for other economies in transition such
as the countries of the Caucasus.
|
