An ordinary meeting of the working groups for discussing regional water policy took place in Tashkent, 14-15 February 2006, under the Project of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) “Improvement of Shared Water Resources Management in Central Asia”.

The agenda of the meeting included discussing by the national working groups (NWGs) the results of the revision of reports on analysis of the efficiency of the acting agreements and existing remarks on the generalizing regional report; summarizing the inventory of activities carried out by each country in the interests of interstate cooperation; presenting a glossary to draft interstate agreements on the Aral Sea basin; considering a draft Agreement on Formation and Functioning of National, Basin and Regional Databases on Integrated Water Resources Use and Protection in the Aral Sea basin”, and a draft Agreement on Water and Energy Resources Use in the Syrdarya River Basin”.

Revised reports on “Analysis of the Efficiency of the Acting Agreements in terms of national interests” were submitted by the NWGs of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The Tajik NWG is to submit revised national report up to 1 March 2006.

During the meeting, the preliminary results of the inventory of activities carried out by each country in the interests of interstate cooperation were presented. With account of the stated remarks, the NWG members agreed to complete inventory activities up to 15 March 2006.

The participants considered the preliminary version of the glossary and received remarks on it from NWGs of Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, BWO “Amudarya” and BWO “Syrdarya”. It was noted that the prepared glossary is useful in water resources use and management in the region. At the same time, further work is needed to revise the brief version of the glossary for including into draft agreements, in particular into a draft Agreement on Water and Energy Resources Use in the Syrdarya River Basin.

A draft Agreement on Formation and Functioning of National, Basin and Regional Databases on Integrated Water Resources Use and Protection in the Aral Sea basin was discussed, and remarks and additions of NWGs of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and the participants of the work meeting were inserted.

Relevant additions and amendments were introduced into the draft Agreement on Water and Energy Resources Use in the Syrdarya River Basin based on a consensus between the participants of the work meeting. The NWG of Tajikistan is to submit remarks on the draft Agreement on Syrdarya (version for February 2006) up to 28 February 2006. It is planned to submit a revised text of the draft Agreement for consideration at the ordinary ICWC meeting in Ashkhabad, 30-31 March 2006.

In view of that the next meeting of the working groups is to be dedicated to discussing the Amudarya river basin problems, BWO “Amudarya” prepared “Preliminary Analysis of the Actual Situation with Water Resources Management in the Amudarya River Basin at the Regional Level” and a general structure the agreement on the basin. The members of the NWGs and RWG will submit their suggestions and additions with regard to these documents by 10 March 2006 for discussing this issue at the round table in Ashkhabad.