OREANDA-NEWS. December 5, 2008. Ashgabat hosted the regular, 12th meeting of the EU Water Initiative Working Group on Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA) organized by the Government of Turkmenistan in collaboration with Romania that chaired of the Working Group till the end of 2009 and the European Commission.

Expressing gratitude to Turkmen partners for the heartfelt welcome and hospitality the participants emphasized that holding such a representative forum in Ashgabat once more demonstrated the endeavours of the Government of Turkmenistan to maintain the sincere and constructive dialogue, its willingness to actively collaborate in working out the participatory approaches to the urgent problems at the regional as well as international levels.

Welcoming participants of the international environmental and water forums in Ashgabat President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov noted that today priority was given to the problems of management, preservation and efficient use of water resources in the region where there were all the conditions to satisfy adequately the daily needs of the peoples residing in the region in high-quality drinking water and supply water to all economic sectors.

In this context the forum participants appreciate the Turkmenistan’s new international initiatives including those on efficient water resources use in the region put forward by Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov during the meeting of the Central Asian leaders at the CIS Summit in Bishkek. The participation of the Head of the UN Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy – the largest UN regional agency called upon to be an effective instrument for preventing any conflicts and peacefully settling the crises in the region driven by new incentives of peaceful development and advancement of economic co-operation, in the meeting in the Kyrgyz capital testified to the urgency of finding the immediate solutions to these problems on the constructive basis.

The EU Water Initiative launched by the EU member states at the at the 2002 World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg to regulate the issues of water supply and sanitation and to design an integrated approach to water resources management including promoting river basin approaches in national and transboundary waters was to contribute to the relevant work carried in many countries. The EU Water Initiative includes four components covering the particular regions: the EECCA aims to improve water resources management in 12 countries – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.

The leaders of the delegations of these countries reported on the work done in the period since the 11th meeting of the EUWI EECCA Working Group was held in Bucharest this May and made presentations on the environmental and water policies carried out by their governments.

The report of Minister of Water Industry of Turkmenistan A. Yazmyradov was of particular interest to the forum participants. The Minister provided the detailed overview on the water resource management policy carried out in Turkmenistan in accordance with the Water Code aimed at ensuring efficient use and protection of water resources and strict regulation of water relations.

It was noted that in the past years Turkmenistan managed to develop a strong water-economic complex. There were the largest network of water canals and 15 water storage reservoirs in the country. Profound importance was attached to land reclamation work and the state of irrigated areas, effective management of water resources mainly consumed by agricultural sector the share of which in the total volume of water consumption was about 90 percent.

The participants noted that the problems of water resources management should be considered together with those related to protection of the environment which of considerable concern today due to the growth and increased impact of the negative factors. The participants put emphasis on the necessity of concerting efforts to protect and preserve unique water resources for the present and future generations.

The discussion and endorsement of the short-range action plan and the EUWI Work Programme 2009 with the National Policy Dialogues, joint activities under the EU Framework Water Directive and other special events were the focus of the forum agenda.

Putting emphasis on the importance of the participatory work with the European partners the members of the delegations noted that such meetings and joint discussions of urgent problems would allow bringing the partners’ views closer together and establishing the positive dialogue to find mutually acceptable solutions.

The EUWI EECCA Working Group would hold the 13th meeting in Bucharest (Romania) in 2009.