22 March is World Water Day
World Water Day is observed on 22 March since 1993 when the United Nations General Assembly declared 22 March as World Day for Water. UN and its member nations devote this day to implementing UN recommendations and promoting concrete activities within their countries regarding the world's water resources, including its conservation and use, under specific theme or motto. The theme for 2019 is “Leaving no one behind”, which is also the slogan of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals.
In 2010, the United Nations General Assembly explicitly recognized the human right to water and sanitation and acknowledged that clean drinking water and sanitation are essential to the realisation of all human rights. It is defined the right to water as the right of everyone to sufficient, safe, acceptable and physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic uses.
Access to water is at the core of public health and, therefore, crucial to the sustainable development and prosperity of the world. We cannot move forward as a global society as long as so many people live without clean water.
Universal access to clean water and sanitation is Goal 6 of the Global Goals that make up the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Efficient water use is one of the topical issues in Central Asia. Turkmenistan is particularly active in this issue.
At the VII World Water Forum in Tegu, the Republic of Korea, in 2015, the Turkmen leader came forward with an initiative to develop a UN water strategy. The country also proposed to create a special UN program for the Aral Sea Basin.
Turkmenistan as the Chair of the International Fund for the Aral Saving (IFAS) this year, proposes the development of the new, 4th Action Programme to assist the countries of the Aral Sea basin (ASBP-4)
The Action Program to assist the countries of the Aral Sea Basin (ASBP) is a key mechanism to solve water, socio-economic and environmental issues in the Aral Sea Basin. This important document of the regional significance serves as the basis for the sustainable development in Central Asia, the intensification of the interstate regional and international interaction within the framework of the Fund’s activities aimed at improving the conditions and quality of life in the Aral Sea area as well as the overcoming the negative impact of the Aral crisis on the environment, the biological diversity of the region and the activity of the people in the Aral Sea basin.
The ASBP-4 preparation is planned in the following areas: integrated use of water resources, ecological, socio-economic and improvement of institutional and legal
At present, the regional and national working groups are being formed from the representatives of IFAS structural units, specialists from ministries and departments of founding states, and international experts to drat the ASBP-4.
As part of the resolution on granting IFAS observer status in the UN General Assembly, the Turkmen side proposed to develop a special UN program, which could become a separate area of United Nations activity.
In the framework of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the Sustainable Development Goals, the IFAS Executive Committee is working to improve the Regional Environmental Action Plan in Central Asia (REAP).
“Creation of local water reservoirs in Amudarya delta” project is the largest project under IFAS’s fund. The project is aimed at improving the environmental situation, ensuring engineering regulation of the water system, restoring biodiversity and increasing the natural productivity of the Aral biological resources, and planting forests on the dried bottom of the Aral Sea to fix sands and reduce salinity and dust moving on agricultural land.
Thanks to the efforts of the Government of Turkmenistan, an artificial Altyn Asyr lake was built in the center of the Karakums. The world’s largest hydro technical facility was created in Turkmenistan in 2009 in order to improve the ecological situation in the Aral Sea region. It is designated for collection of drain water from irrigated lands of the country. The volume of natural hollow, which is 103 kilometres long, is 132 cubic kilometres. A network of two large tributary collector canals fills it.
In general, construction of big artificial water reserve in the Karakums has reduced the level of water salinity in interstate collectors that inflow to the Altyn Asyr Turkmen Lake. According to ecologists, the artificial lake would fundamentally improve soil condition of irrigated lands in the region by 75%, increase yields by 25% and solve many problems related to soil salinization, swamping and drought.
The Altyn Asyr Lake has also created conditions for the development of horticulture and animal husbandry in area around, the cultivation of salt-resistant sugar beet, Sudanese grass, barley, millet, which would improve the feed base of the livestock industry in the region. Due to this, it would be possible to keep 4,600 cattle and 60 thousand camels.
Turkmen Lake makes new favourable ecological and forage conditions for fishery. As of now, around 23 fish species lives in Turkmen lake. Many new nesting and hibernation places of birds appeared in this place, which are counted to around 250 species.
Scientists from the Academy of Sciences of Turkmenistan and profile research institutes are involved in effective using the potential of the Altyn Asyr Lake and developing animal husbandry, fisheries and agriculture around it. A modern village with the necessary infrastructure is planned to be built near the hydro technical facility.
