Year: 2008
Collections: Books
Topics: Water, Sustainable Development, IWRM, Water diplomacy, Transboundary Water Resources, Water Security, Transboundary cooperation, Hydropolitics
Authors: Thomas Bernauer, Tobias Siegfried
Countries:
Source:
This book chapter examines the compliance and actual performance of an international water agreement in the Naryn/Syr Darya Basin in Central Asia. The authors analyze the 1998 agreement, which was designed to regulate the operation of the Toktogul Reservoir by balancing Kyrgyzstan’s need for winter hydropower production with Uzbekistan’s and Kazakhstan’s need for summer irrigation water. The main argument of the article is that formal compliance with an agreement does not necessarily mean that the agreement is effective in solving the real water allocation problem. Using the policy performance metric (PER), the authors show that although compliance with the agreement was relatively high, its actual performance was low and highly variable. The article concludes that the existing water management system in the Naryn/Syr Darya Basin requires urgent institutional reform.
Year: 2009
Collections: Research Paper
Topics: Water, IWRM, Transboundary Water Resources, Transboundary cooperation
Authors: Teresita Cruz-Del Rosario
Countries:
Source: Australian Journal of International Affairs
The article examines the challenges of cooperative management of transboundary water resources in Central Asia. The author analyzes water relations among Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan through Ulrich Beck’s concept of “risk society.” The article argues that water scarcity, the transboundary nature of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, the Soviet legacy of centralized water management, artificial borders, and ethnic tensions create significant risks for regional stability.
Year: 2017
Collections: Research Paper
Topics: IWRM, Water law, Water diplomacy, Transboundary Water Resources, Hydropolitics
Authors: Daria Boklan, Barbara Janusz-Pawletta
Countries:
Source: Environmental Earth Sciences
This article explores the legal challenges of managing transboundary watercourses in Central Asia in the context of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). The authors analyze whether existing international, regional, and bilateral legal mechanisms are sufficient for regulating shared rivers such as the Syr Darya, Chu, Talas, Irtysh, Ural, and others.
Year: 2015
Collections: Research Paper
Topics: Water governance, Transboundary Water Resources, Hydropolitics
Authors: Nodir Djanibekov, Kristof Van Assche, Vladislav Valentinov
Countries:
Source: Society & Natural Resources
The article focuses on the problems of transboundary water governance in Central Asia from the perspective of Niklas Luhmann’s social systems theory. The authors examine why, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it became difficult to coordinate the use of the water-energy infrastructure of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers. During the Soviet period, water, energy, and agriculture were managed through a centralized system. However, after 1991, each country began to develop its own national policy. This strengthened contradictions between upstream countries, which need water for hydropower production, and downstream countries, which need water for irrigation.
Year: 2020
Collections:
Topics: Water, Climate, IWRM, Water diplomacy, Transboundary Water Resources, Water Security, Hydropower
Authors: Melinda Davies, Nathanial Matthews
Countries:
Source: International Journal of Water Resources Development
The article focuses on how China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) may affect water resources and water governance in Central Asia. The authors consider Central Asia as a region that already faces a complex water situation, including transboundary rivers, water scarcity, the dependence of agriculture on irrigation, the environmental problems of the Aral Sea, weak coordination between countries, and the impacts of climate change. Against this background, the development of infrastructure, industry, hydropower, and agriculture under the BRI may increase pressure on water resources.
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