Ideas Tajikistan is the main water provider in the Aral Sea Basin, but 43 per cent of Tajiks have no piped water; agriculture suffers from deteriorating irrigation systems.
The report analyses access to this crucial resource as a basic human right, and assesses how effective water management could lead to progress on all of the MDGs, including by diversifying agriculture and generating revenues through exports of cotton and hydropower. The report argues for a costing exercise to identify priorities and resource requirements. |
Innovation The report team chose the subject of water resources in part to strategically capitalize on a series of other events in 2003, including the Third World Water Forum in Kyoto, Japan; the Dushanbe International Fresh Water Forum, which brought together 400 participants from 45 countries; the preparation of Tajikistan's first MDG Report; and Tajikistan's participation in an MDG Needs Assessment that was carried out by the UN Millennium Project.
The report marks Tajikistan's first attempt to integrate human development and the MDG indicators. |
Impact Water has become a high-profile policy issue in Tajikistan, with the Government declaring a decade of Water for Life. Based on the MDG Needs Assessment, it is revising its PRSP to establish closer links to the MDG targets on water and sanitation, improve the poor's access to water, rehabilitate water supply systems and reform water management.
Tajikistan is also taking a leadership role in water management negotiations with neighbouring countries, including through a conference on transboundary river basins management. It has joined a growing movement that is shifting away from the past practice of allocating fixed quantities of water in favour of embracing more flexible and cooperative water management arrangements. |
