LocationsKey national authorities trained on integrating climate risks into water policies and basin management plans in Kyrgyzstan
July 13, 2022
Participants of the training session
Bishkek – 13 July 2022 – UNDP organized a training session on integrating climate risks into water policies and basin management plans in Kyrgyzstan, which was held 12-13 July in Issyk-Kul region, within the framework of the regional project “Climate Change and Resilience in Central Asia”, funded by the European Union. The training session was attended by the representatives of key national and local departments in the field of water resources and climate risk management.
Today, Central Asian countries are experiencing climate change more noticeably: temperature fluctuations, land degradation and increased intensity of droughts, worse water scarcity, intensified erosion, reductions in Tien Shan glaciers and snow cover, and damage to water quality and ecosystems. Ferghana Valley is home to nearly 30% of the Central Asia region’s population, which is designated the highest climate change area among transboundary climate change. The rate of warming temperatures in Central Asia is on average higher than the global average hotspots in Central Asia. The region is warming faster than the global average.
“This event is very important in the sense that our planned activities included the creation of five basin water resources departments. So far, we have managed to create only one basin administration - the Karadarya-Syrdarya-Amudarya Basin Administration of Water Resources. The basin of a river or rivers is the ecological territory where we can talk about the adaptation measures being taken. These measures will not only affect narrow departmental targeted actions, it will contribute to general departmental engagement activities across the basin”, said Zhailoobaev Abdibay, Deputy Director, Water Service of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Kyrgyz Republic.
The “Climate Change and Resilience in Central Asia” project is being implemented with a focus on improvement of the knowledge of climate-fragility risks amongst stakeholders at local, national, and regional levels; facilitation risk-informed policymaking and resource management, and supporting practical risk reduction interventions. In this regard, the purpose of this training session on integrating climate risks into water policies and basin management plans in Kyrgyzstan was to increase the capacity of representatives of key departments in the field of water resources and climate risk management to use climate change risk analysis, water resources, and river basin management methodologies, such as the GEF International Waters’ Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis/Strategic Action Programme Methodology (TDA/SAP), the best relevant practices of the GEF TWAP, and selected techniques of the developmental scenario building reflecting a climate change for the purpose of the training.
“The main focus of the project is the integration of climate risks into decision-making processes and development strategies at the national and regional levels. This session emphasizes the importance and relevance of integrating climate risks into water policy and water basin management, which can contribute to a better solution of existing water problems at the transboundary and national levels, which will also contribute to solving water-related climate problems,” said Gulzhan Makhmudova, project сoordinator, UNDP Kyrgyzstan - “It is important to note that similar events will be held in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, after which one consolidated regional event will be organized.”
Participants developed and discussed practical ideas on climate-related threats and risks associated with water resources for their subsequent integration into national water policies and river basin management plans in the Ferghana Valley.
“This training session brought together specialists to build a dialogue in such a way that they suggested to us further ways of developing the in terms of identifying key problems related to climate risks in the Fergana Valley and so that they could give us in which field of activity it is necessary to work”, said Talaibek Makeev, international consultant for the Climate Change and Sustainable Development in Central Asia project.
As a result of the training session, participants through proposed team and individual exercises proposed major criteria for selection of river basins for further work of the project on integration of the preventive actions, response and adaptation measures to increase climatic resilience in Ferghana Valley. Along with that, participants scoped the subject of work, qualitative and quantitative indicators of climatic risks and threats within selected river basins. In addition, participants obtained techniques of a team and individual analysis both of the climate change risks, water resources and river basin management.
***
The “Climate Change and Resilience in Central Asia” project is funded by European Union and implemented jointly by UNDP in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, the Ministry of Natural Resources, Ecology and Technical Supervision of the Kyrgyz Republic, the Agency for Hydrometeorology of the Committee for Environmental Protection of Tajikistan and the Center of Hydrometeorological Service of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
More photos are available here.
Contacts for the media:
Ainagul Abdrakhmanova, Communications Officer at +996775755776
