Depletion of water resources may lead to social tension between and within countries. Zafar Makhmudov, Executive Director of the Regional Environmental Centre of Central Asia (CAREC) said to journalists at the Central Asian Climate Change Conference (CACIC-2024) in Almaty (Kazakhstan).
According to him, one of the main problems is to learn how to manage water resources and make it possible to provide water to developing economies and population. Therefore, some CAREC projects are aimed at introducing new water and energy saving technologies to meet the growing demand for water.
There is also a task of emergency management in case of severe floods, mudflows. Early warning systems help to avoid human casualties and reduce economic losses.
Zafar Makhmudov noted that each of the Central Asian states has its own problems. They include water shortage, desertification and land degradation, rising groundwater and others. It is difficult for the population to adapt to new conditions in agriculture, it takes time and requires financial resources.
Transboundary cooperation plays an important role in this situation.
«Imagine if each country uses water only according to its own vision and needs. It is not only its availability, but also its quality. Downstream states must receive quality moisture in sufficient quantities. If everyone starts to use resources chaotically, taking into account only their own interests, it will lead to misunderstanding between the countries,» the CAREC head said.
He noted that another very important point that CAREC faces is the duplication of many regional processes.
«Each state due to its interests tries to promote some regional processes anew or new platforms are created. This results in high costs for capacity building, implementation and achievement of goals. It would be much more effective to act within the framework of existing regional projects to save resources,» Zafar Makhmudov said.
