Turkmenistan introduces innovative solutions for water resources management
Small Basin Council for the Murgab River started its activity in Turkmenistan. The council became the first structure for water resources management, created on the basis of the hydrographic (basin) principle.
Recently, the Regional Environmental Center for Central Asia (CAREC) jointly with the Executive Committee of the International Fund for the Aral sea held in Mary city the first meeting of the council, which attracted more than 40 participants, including lawmakers, representatives of relevant departments, EC IFAS and local stakeholders.
The event was the next stage in the implementation of the joint project CAREC-USAID Smart Waters, which implies the introduction of basin planning principles on small watersheds in Central Asia.
During the meeting, the working schedule and the composition of the Council were determined. It included 26 organizations. The head of the Department for the Improvement and Introduction of Modern Methods of Agriculture of the Mary province administration was appointed as the chairman of the council.
The next meeting of SBC is scheduled for October.
980-km long Murgab river, which runs through Afghanistan and Turkmenistan, is the second largest river in the country with an average annual runoff of about 1 billion cubic meters, which is 6.5% of the total water consumption in the country.
126 thousand people live in the basin of the 530-km Turkmen section of Murgab. Mainly, the water of the river is used for agricultural needs and irrigation.
The five-year project Smart Waters (Water, education and cooperation), implemented since 2015, aims to expand regional cooperation on the use of shared water resources. In particular, the project aims to create a system that will solve the problem of lack of specialized knowledge in the region, to build working relationships between water specialists and scientific institutions, as well as to demonstrate the potential of the basin approach to water resources management.
Currently, the fourth component of this program is being implemented in Turkmenistan, the basis for its realization is the new edition of the Water Code, which entered into force in 2016. For the first time the principles of integrated water resources management, including basin management, were stipulated in the updated legislation.
