Comparison of practices

Use of water resources

• Use of water resources
• Use of land resources

Country: Kyrgyzstan

Province: Osh Region

District: Kara-Suu District

Country: Kazakhstan

Province: Jambyl Region

District: Talas District

Other settlement: Village of Sadu Shakirov

Akbura River Basin

The site is located in the desert foothill plain in South-ern Kazakhstan (internal drain area) at the very end of Sharuashlyk Irrigation Canal.

Start date: 01.01.2007

End date: 31.12.2017

Start date: 01.05.2008

End date: 30.04.2009

Low level of coordination among WUAs – as a rule, each WUA liaises independently with its water management organization (WMO).

Acute water shortage; land degradation in the village of Sadu Shakirov; abandoned irrigated arable lands used only for year-round cattle grazing.

For a long time, the irrigation canal was not operation-al and, thus, became dilapidated. The situation in the area was aggravated by climate change impacts (de-creased quantity of early spring, summer and winter precipitation, increased average annual temperature, spring and autumn frost bites and summer droughts).

Methods of integration and social mobilization

Method of autumn and winter water-charging irrigation

The RMC-WUU is an association of legal entities in the form of Union – a voluntary independent non-profit public organization uniting legal entities (i.e. WUAs) based on common interests with the aim of coordinating actions and protecting shared interests and rights.  RMC-WUU operates in accordance with the Charter approved at the general meeting of water user representatives, has its own stamp and bank account.

Actions:

The creation of RMC-WUU began with the establishment of the Initiative Group (IG).  The IG consisted of active water specialists, representatives of water users and other stakeholders who saw the need to transit to IWRM.  Further on, the IG carried out social mobilization, drafted necessary documents (the Union’s Charter, etc.), organized the general meeting of water users that approved the Charter and established the Union’s Council (Board).  After that, RMC-WUU underwent legal registration and officially launched its work.

Results:

• RMC-WUU established, legally registered and has been operating until present time;
• RMC-WUU contributed to the following:
  - enhanced stability and uniformity of water supply to WUAs via state WMO;
  - better collection of irrigation service fees paid by WUAs to state WMO.
• Representing the interests of water users as a member of the RMC Water Committee, RMC-WUU also contributed to decreasing conflicts between WUAs and WMO.

Actions:
1) Reconstruction of the canal, stop-gates and field irrigation networks (rehabilitation of irrigation furrows),
2) Setting up artificial pastures with forage crops

Results:

Financial and economic:
Using water-charging irrigation for rangelands allowed increasing their productivity from 3.5 to 5 dt/ha and receiving 60 tons of herbage for cattle and sheep and goats from non-cultivated land.

Technical:
1) 12 km of the canal and 5 stop-gates to regulate water releases restored,
2) 5 km of irrigation furrows built,
3) Cultivated pastures with forage crops created (soil preparation, alfaalfa planting, coordination of irrigation norms),
4) Fields are prepared during the summer-fall period, and watered during late fall or early spring.

Lessons learnt:

The effectiveness of RMC-WUU depends on internal and external conditions: capacities (financial, institutional, etc.) of its members (i.e. WUAs) and the level of democracy and market development in a given country.  In turn, the growth of capacities of RMC-WUU members depends on RMC-WUU performance.

Recommendation:

Currently, WUAs capacities are rather poor which is reflected in RMC-WUA own underperformance.  Considering that WUA represent the weakest link in water hierarchy and the role of water users in addressing national food, water and environmental security needs, the government should find opportunities to support (first of all, financially) WUAs/RMC-WUU during transition period (until they become self-sufficient).

Lessons learnt:
Application of water-charging irrigation allowed in-creasing water availability and, as the result, productivity of agricultural crops.

Application of water-charging irrigation demonstrated the efficiency of water use and allowed local popula-tion to go through winter without losing livestock.

Recommendations:
The method can be used in areas/communities where along with crop growing the population is also involved in livestock breeding.

Foreign tools (transfer of foreign experience)

Traditional tools transferred from generation to generation that proved their efficiency in modern conditions

1. Cost of implementation: High

2. Approximate cost of investment per 1 ha:

3. O&M costs: High

4. Expert support: Not needed

1. Cost of implementation: High

2. Approximate cost of investment per 1 ha:

3. O&M costs: High

4. Expert support: Not needed

Project title: Integrated Water Resources Management in the Fergana Valley (IWRM-Fergana).

Project duration: Jan 01, 2001-Dec 31, 2012 (12 years).

Project goal and objectives: overall project goal was “to contribute to safer living, environmental sustainability and wide social harmony, to support rural restructuring in Central Asian countries by enhancing water resources management based on the example of the Ferghana Valley”.

Project beneficiaries: WUAs, farmers in project sites.

Project implementer: IWMI, SIC of the ICWC, Project Steering Committee (PSC) consisting of 3 representatives of the Ministries of Rural and Water Management (MRWM) of project target countries, 3 heads of Regional Water Administrations hosting project target sites.

Project title: Fall and early spring Irrigation of arable land and pastures as an adaptation mechanism of ra-tional water use in Southern Kazakhstan

Duration: May 1, 2008 – April 30, 2009

Project goal and objectives: reduce land degradation due to climate change by way of rational use of irriga-tion water. The project was implemented to prevent loss of cattle due to forage shortage during alternating droughty years.

Project beneficiaries: local population.

Project implementer: Kogal LLC

Guidelines on IWRM streamlining, Volume 1 (Institutional Aspects), Tashkent 2011.

1) UNDP Compilation “Climate change adaptation: ex-amples from Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan”, Tashkent 2012;
2) pandia.org

SIC ICWC

SIC ICWC