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: Tajikistan

Province: Districts of Republican Subordination

District: Vahdat

Other settlement: town of Vakhdat

Akbura River Basin

Located in the Kafirnigan River Basin (river catchment area)

Start date: 01.01.2007

End date: 31.12.2017

Start date: 01.10.2016

End date: 31.12.2016

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

Poor technical condition, operation and maintenance of the irrigation system

Methods of integration and social mobilization

MASSCOTE methodology

The AAMC-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.  AAMC-WUU operates as per the Charter approved at the general meeting of water user representatives, has its own stamp and bank account.

Actions:

The creation of AAMC-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, AAMC-WUU underwent legal registration and officially launched its work.

Results:

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

Actions:

Mapping of the system and services depending on canals’ purpose.

Results:

Financial and economic:

economically effective, fair and sustainable water resource management.

Ecological:

integrated protection of key environmental elements, including prevention of raising ground water level and secondary soil salination as well as irrigation-induced soil erosion, etc.

Technical:

improved technical characteristics of municipal water supply to different stakeholders.

Social:

enhanced welfare of farm employees due to increased income.

Lessons learnt:

The effectiveness of AAMC-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 AAMC-WUU members depends on AAMC-WUU performance.

Recommendation:

Currently, WUAs capacities are rather poor which is reflected in AAMC-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/AAMC-WUU during transition period (until they become self-sufficient).

Lessons learnt:

Express assessment based on MASSCOTE methodology allows to improve the planning of upgrading efforts to ensure better servicing of diversified water uses requiring higher supply flexibility and cost reduction.

Recommendations:

It is necessary to widely deploy the MASSCOTE methodology of express assessment of the condition of irrigation systems and enhancing their operation.

Foreign tools (transfer of foreign experience)

Foreign tools (transfer of foreign experience)

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: Using MASSCOTE methodology for express assessment of the condition of Vakhdat municipal irrigation system.

Project duration: 2016.

Project goal and objectives: designing the irrigation system upgrading and management plan based on MASSCOTE methodology of process diagnostics and assessment of irrigation system performance.

Project beneficiaries: land and water users.

Project implementer: UN FAO.

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

SIC ICWC

SIC ICWC