Improving water and energy coordination in Central Asia

Water and energy management is closely interlinked and has been a key factor of inter-state relations among the Central Asian countries since their independence in the early 1990s. Over the 30 years of independence, the Central Asian countries have made continuous and constructive progress in cooperation, including through joint work under institutions such as the International Fund for saving the Aral Sea (IFAS), the Interstate Commission for Water Coordination (ICWC), the Interstate Commission on Sustainable Development (ICSD) and the
Coordinating Dispatch Centre (CDC) “Energy”.

However, coordination between water and energy agencies for ensuring stable and mutually beneficial flow regulation is still limited. Therefore, the momentum towards greater regional interaction has been increasing in recent years, pushed by the heads of Central Asian states reiterating the importance of strengthening mutually beneficial multilateral cooperation on the integrated and rational use of water and energy resources.

In 2023, the Scientific Information Center of the Interstate Commission for Water Coordination (SIC ICWC) in Central Asia, acting as the Secretariat of the the Regional Network of Water (Basin) Organizations from Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA NWO), contributed to this process. In partnership with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and countries experts, it prepared a discussion paper, Rethinking Institutional and Financial Mechanisms on Water and Energy Cooperation in Central Asia and widely discussed its findings in different fora such as a workshop “Innovative Solutions for strengthening regional cooperation on water and energy in Central Asia” (7 June, Dushanbe), a special session in Eurasian water and energy complex in Eurasian’23 Congress (8-9 June, Sochi), a roundtable in memory of Prof. V.A. Dukhovniy “Improvement of regional water and energy cooperation in Central Asia” (16 August), and 2023 SPECA Economic Forum (20-24 November, Baku).

The paper and discussions suggest that the way forward in improving water and energy coordination calls for a holistic approach in designing measures, building on the existing water and energy mechanisms while combining administrative and market-based approaches in support of interstate regulation. Such a hybrid approach could have the great potential to efficiently make and implement mutually beneficial decisions on water and energy in Central Asia.