Organized by the World Bank, the Central Asia Water Future Forum and Expo is being held in the Kazakh city of Almaty on September 19-22.
The event has reportedly brought together over 200 policy makers and practitioners from governments of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan, the international community of water practitioners, as well as regional learning institutions, universities, civil society and media representatives.
Like many regions across the world, Central Asia is seeking to make the best use of limited water resources, and is exploring ways of modernizing the tools and institutions in this area. This event reportedly improves access to global good practices in modernizing water resources monitoring and management in a changing development and climate context.
The aim of this event is to move state-of-the-art water information, forecasting, and analysis forward in order to enable all countries of the Aral Sea Basin to better manage water efficiency and scarcity, climate change, and economic and population growth at both national and regional scales. The event's design draws on ideas and priorities of Central Asia experts and efforts to work across borders and sectors on water-smart solutions.
The event participants reportedly include leading water agencies from the Central Asia countries, international organizations, government decision-makers, government water specialists, policy institutes, academia, hydrologists, and meteorologists. Non-government organizations and donors from the region and neighboring countries are also participating in the event.
This Forum is convened as part of the preparation for the Central Asia Water Resources Management program, aimed at modernizing water information management systems and strengthening related institutional capacity.
“This event provides a valuable opportunity for countries to collaborate on a critical development issue for the region”, said Lilia Burunciuc, the World Bank Regional Director for Central Asia. “Jointly we hope to focus on innovative solutions to water-related development challenges, learning from global good practices and regional experiences in improved water management and climate resilience.”
A Tajik delegation participating in the event is led Daler Kholmatov, the head of the water-and-energy policy at the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources of Tajikistan.
While the Forum is a platform for knowledge sharing and learning, the Expo features displays to showcase global and regional good practice, state-of-the art hydromet instrumentation, visualization, forecasting, and other analytical tools, as well as institutional development approaches for modernizing water management systems. This type of collaboration reportedly helps countries advance the dialogue on future needs for information, institutions, and related investments for modernizing their systems at national and regional levels.
The event is being held in cooperation with the International Applied Research Conference “Water Resources of Central Asia and Their Use” on September 22-24, 2016 in Almaty convened by the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Education and Science of Kazakhstan.
