Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan – The workshop to discuss approaches for water management took place in hybrid form under the chairmanship of Mr Abdybai Dzhailobayev, Deputy Director of the State Agency for Water Resources under the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Regional Development of the Kyrgyz Republic. More than 25 key national stakeholders, including representatives of academia, civil society, Delegation of the European Union (EU) to the Kyrgyz Republic and international organizations attended this event.

This workshop was organized under the National Water Policy Dialogue (NPD) programme. NPDs have been taking place in Kyrgyzstan since 2008 with the support of the EU, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The dialogue has served as a platform for discussing Kyrgyzstan’s water policy in an inter-sectoral and multi-stakeholder setting, in the spirit of integrated water resources management.

The participants discussed damage compensation approaches for water resources and water facilities, indicators of water security, especially in the transboundary context, Kyrgyzstan’s cooperation with its neighboring countries on the protection and use of transboundary rivers water resources and specifically reporting on the SDG 6.5.2 on transboundary water cooperation, and priorities for the national water sector development. 

The meeting was organized by the State Agency for Water Resources with the financial support of the EU and technical support from UNECE and OECD.

Background: The EU-funded project “European Union Water Initiative National Policy Dialogues (NPDs) in Central Asia” (September 2019 – September 2022), implemented by UNECE in cooperation with OECD, aims to enhance integrated water resources management and inter-sectoral coordination for water security at the national level in Central Asian countries to support sustainable development. The project is implemented as part of the EU-funded project “European Union – Central Asia Water, Environment and Climate Change Cooperation” (WECOOP).

For additional information, please contact Mr Alisher Mamadzhanov, Environmental Affairs Officer, UNECE, email: alisher.mamadzhanov@un.org, Ms Nurgul Smagulova, Event and Communication Officer, WECOOP, email: nurgul.smagulova@wecoop.eu, mobile/WhatsApp: +77012066760, Askarbek Erkebaev, Press & Information Officer, EU Delegation to the Kyrgyz Republic, email: askarbek.erkebaev@eeas.europa.eu.

https://unece.org/euwi-npds; https://wecoop.eu/

Photo by Vlad Ushakov