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7 International Assistance and Aral Sea Basin Programs
International assistance to the CA countries The international assistance for national and regional water projects in CA is provided as part of general external aid to regional development. In the structure of funds allocated in the post-Soviet period by donors for promotion of development, CA is not in the top. According to OECD’s data, in 2011, the five CA countries had only 0.98% of the total amount of official development aid (ODA), while Afghanistan received five times more, $6.7 billion. However, the next years showed decline in financing for Afghanistan as well, and, in 2017, the aid dropped from $3.2 billion to $2.8 billion. (OECD, 2019a[28]) The aid per capita was as follows in 2011: Kyrgyzstan – $95; Tajikistan – $50.8; Kazakhstan – $13; Turkmenistan – $7.5; Uzbekistan – $7.5. Almost the same picture of foreign aid was observed in subsequent years. Experts note considerable differences in countries’ abilities to utilize the provided aid. Kazakhstan uses the aid more effectively than Kyrgyzstan or Tajikistan. It is interesting that in 2014 Kazakhstan decided to become an international development partner and started to submit reports to OECD on its contributions since 2015. The reports say that the key recipients of aid from Kazakhstan are Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.
The Aral Sea Basin Programs since 1992 to 2019 Since 1991 to 2019, many international partners worked in CA in the field of water, including UN agencies (UNDP, FAO, UNECE, UNESCAP, UNESCO, UNRCCA); development banks (WB, ADB, EDB, IDB), international development agencies from Canada, German, US, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Norway, other international organizations and donor countries (OECD, European Commission), as well as private foundations (Aga Khan, Soros). It was supposed that the overall focus of regional projects would be determined by the Aral Sea Basin Programs (ASBP) developed jointly by countries and international partners. But history has shown it has not always been possible to achieve this in practice. ASBP-1. In first decade, the largest aid at the regional level was provided by the World Bank, UNDP, European Union and USAID. In June 1998, a donor meeting was organized in Paris to develop the Aral Sea Basin Program (ASBP-1). The Program was comprised of 8 components and 19 projects that, eventually, formed the main tools and mechanisms of ICWC, Fundamental provisions of the regional water strategy; Water Resource Management Information System (WARMIS); Water Use and Farm Management Survey (WUFMAS); collector-drainage flow management; enhancement of hydrometeorological network. The Program included three water supply projects “Clean water, sanitation and health” (Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) and efforts for preservation of Sudochie Lake. ASBP-1 was the program, which was successfully implemented thanks to closer coordination between representatives of the countries and donors under the guidance of the World Bank. It was during this period
OVERVIEW OF THE USE AND MANAGEMENT OF WATER RESOURCES IN CENTRAL ASIA © OECD 2020
