EDB issues a new report on water management in the CIS
Almaty, 23 December 2013. Effective water management is one of the key conditions of sustainable use of water. For this reason all CIS countries have national administrative bodies to implement state policies in this area. At the same time, the shortages of water in some CIS regions are caused, to a significant extent, by the weak organisation of the use of water in industry and agriculture, the poor condition of the water management infrastructure and the low level of cooperation in transboundary river basins. These conclusions are made in Eurasian Development Bank’s (EDB) new report Enhancing Water Resources Management in CIS Countries: Modern Trends prepared by Vladimir Yasinsky, Alexander Mironenkov and Tulegen Sarsembekov.
The report states that the strengthening or creation of a basin chain and improving its organisational structure is an important aspect of improving the management of international watercourses. Basin organisations must ensure coordination of comprehensive water management measures between various sectors and ministries at regional and basin levels.
Enhanced interaction between the CIS countries in the joint use of transboundary watercourses will allow concerted regional and national water use policies to be pursued covering the various aspects of water economy: water supply, irrigation, hydropower, water transport, etc. Strengthening cooperation, particularly on a multilateral basis, will promote sustainable water use, security of water bodies and hydraulic facilities and the preservation of the environmental potential of river basins.
The report emphasises that innovative financing mechanisms need to be introduced, such as private-public partnership in water economy, including external investments in water supply, sanitation, irrigation, hydropower, recreation, etc. Finally, the CIS countries must maintain technical and scientific cooperation and jointly train research and engineering personnel capable of dealing with the region’s water economy and environmental challenges.
All analytical reports by EDB studying regional integration processes in the sectors of its member states and other CIS countries are available online.
Additional Information
Eurasian Development Bank is an international financial institution founded by Russia and Kazakhstan in January 2006 with the mission to facilitate the development of market economies, sustainable economic growth and the expansion of mutual trade and other economic ties in its member states. EDB’s charter capital exceeds US $1.5 billion. The member states of the Bank are the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Russian Federation, and the Republic of Tajikistan. Read more at https://www.eabr.org.