Joint Statement of the Heads of Water Agencies of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Republic of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and the Republic of Uzbekistan

Turkistan, 27 April 2022

We, the Heads of water agencies of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, while recognizing the importance of regional water security challenges, express our willingness to take further coordinated actions in order to ensure multipurpose and sound use and protection of transboundary water resources.

We believe it important to continue cooperation in the spirit of collective leadership, solidarity and collective responsibility as a foundation, on which the regional water cooperation was developed and the Interstate Commission for Water Coordination in Central Asia was created.

We acknowledge our solid commitment to transboundary water management on the basis of consensus, to the benefit of all the riparian states and in line with international agreements to which the region’s countries are signatories.

We will continue implementing integrated water resources management at all levels as a key tool of green development, adaptation, and water-food-energy-environment nexus.

We will endeavor, within our mandates, to take feasible measures, with the focus on sound water use and water conservation, to build trust and enhance cooperation, transparency and sustainability among the Central Asian countries.

We will make efforts to ensure that qualified personnel, reliable data, advanced knowledge, digitalization and innovative development of the water sector become the key factors of medium- and long-term economic growth and sustainable development in the region.

We will encourage development and sharing of knowledge, forecasts and innovations in order to improve water use management and planning.

Having experienced environmental and socio-economic consequences of unsound water use, we recognize the need for sustainable use and a reasonable balance between the needs of people, economies and ecosystems today and in the future.

In this context, we will strengthen coordination of actions for the improvement of water-related ecosystems, including glaciers, flow formation zones, river deltas and the exposed Aral Sea bed and for climate mitigation.

We attach particular importance to more active work with youth and to encouraging the population to value and take care of water.