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Turkmenistan has put on the agenda of the upcoming session of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) to be held in May 2020 the issue of creating mechanisms to solve the problems of closed reservoirs in the region. It was announced at multilateral consultations on the development of the UN Special Programme for the countries of the Aral Sea basin that took place in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The event was organized by the Executive Committee of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea (IFAS).

The representatives from relevant structures of Central Asian countries and Afghanistan, embassies accredited in Turkmenistan, and delegates to the Regional Conference on Water Issues, held in Ashgabat on December 17-18, attended the meeting.

Turkmenistan proposes to establish a platform at the organization’s auspice to provide a “mandate to develop basic modalities for the Asia-Pacific and Central Asian reservoirs. The draft Resolution will also be considered. ” It is about giving countries the opportunity, on the basis of a specific document, to cooperate in solving the water problems of the region.

“These reservoirs are the litmus test of our activity,” the representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan noted in his speech.

The closed reservoirs of the region – lakes, located erratic in the regions of the Asia-Pacific and Central Asia – are undergo to the same danger that the Aral Sea has suffered in the face of climate change – the dangers of drying out.

According to him, this threat is global and is related to all continents, and the ways to prevent it, unfortunately, are not universal: what suits Lake Michigan does not fit Lake Chad. In this regard, the urgent need for the creation of the UN Special Program for the countries of the Aral Sea basin was noted.

The goal is to promote cooperation to reduce the destructive impact of the Aral Sea crisis on the environment and human health without reference to the national or geographical criteria. A special program could also become the mechanism that would unite all regional programs, would become a coordination center, a daily reporting body, and data provision on the results of activity.

Ashgabat, over its presidency in the IFAS, has repeatedly noted that the Aral Sea problem has long ceased to be regional. Over the past 55 years, the volume of water in the once fourth largest lake in the world has decreased by more than 15 times, its level dropped by 20 meters. 5.5 million hectares of salt sandy areas were formed on its territory, small particles from which are gone with the wind for thousands of kilometers away and have a negative impact on the ecology of the region, flora and fauna, human health and life.

In addition, the consultations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan addressed the issues related to the prospects of creation a multilateral trust fund for human security for the Aral Sea region under the auspices of the United Nations, the purpose of which is to overcome the negative consequences of the environmental catastrophe in the Aral Sea region and implement tasks to improve the socio-economic situation in the region.

Regional Central Asian Conference on “Innovative approaches and solutions in the system of sustainable water resources management and opportunities for their use in Central Asia” is being held in Almaty these days, the participants of which, among other issues, would consider ways to tackle the Aral Sea crisis.

Altyn ASHIROVA