Improving Regional Cooperation in Water Management in Afghanistan and Southwest Asia

On Thursday, 30 April, EWI’s Preventive Diplomacy Initiatives hosted the second installment in a policy dialogue to improve cooperation on water in Afghanistan and Southwest Asia. The dialogue, part of EWI’s initiative to promote alternative futures for Afghanistan and Southwest Asia, is designed not only to foster better management of water—the most critical of natural resources—but also to create ties between local and regional authorities that can build trust and prevent conflicts in this volatile area.

Speakers at this installment of the dialogue included Ambassador Miroslav Jenča, Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Central Asia and Head of the United Nations Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia (UNRCCA) and Angelika Beer, Member of the European Parliament and Co-Chair of the Executive Council of EWI’s Parliamentarians Network for Conflict Prevention.

Key issues discussed at the meeting were:

• A change in focus from water shortage to inefficiencies in water usage;
• The importance of tangible benefits for all stakeholders;
• Shared management and shared training as peacebuilding tools;
• The political importance of the history of water use and management;
• The role of regional organizations;
• China and Russia’s potential role in enhancing regional cooperation on water.

Defining the problem

An early discovery in the discussion was the lack of clarity on the main problems with water supply in the region. EWI’s Dr. Najam Abbas suggested that increasing demand could lead to water shortages, which could in turn increase tensions and complicate diplomatic efforts in the region. Further specifying the problem, Jakob Granit of the Stockholm International Water Institute added that such shortages are not the result of water scarcity, but of inefficient water management, especially for irrigation. Abdul Jalil Ghafoory of the Afghan Embassy in Brussels backed Granit’s diagnosis, citing inadequacies in Afghanistan’s knowledge base as the main challenge in its capacity for water management.
 
How viable is regional collaboration?

There was general agreement on the need for collaboration in water management and its potential for promoting regional stability. Ambassador Miroslav Jenča of the UN pointed to a post-Soviet record of collaboration among the five Central Asian states—Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan—and their openness to collaborating with Afghanistan to manage its water resources. “They are vitally interested in a stable Afghanistan,” he said. “Threats coming from Afghanistan are threats in Central Asia as well.”

However, CEPS-EUCAM’s Nafisa Hasanova drew a more skeptical picture. “None of the Central Asian states have any real policy toward Afghanistan,” she said, suggesting that these states often perceive Afghanistan as a threat, in part because it was not part of the Soviet Union and was never included in the political definition of Central Asia.
 
Technical training and capacity building

Many participants suggested that mutual technical training across national boundaries might help build trust in the region and improve water management. Such cross-border cooperation would also foster local leadership, which, according to Jenča, is an essential component of any water management solution. “Whatever is imposed from the outside is probably not sustainable,” Jenča said, “and may lead to misunderstandings and tension.”
 
What can the international community do?

While local leadership and ownership is key, participants did outline a role for the international community in supporting more effective, collaborative, and constructive management of water. Among the recommendations for the international community was a call for investment in the exchange of technical training between Afghanistan and the five Central Asian countries. Existing regional institutions such as the Asian Development Bank’s Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation program, the International Fund for saving the Aral Sea, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Economic Cooperation Organization could serve as platforms for such cooperation.

Another idea brought forward was to hold issue-specific multidisciplinary workshops on topics such as water resource management as a crucial link in the agricultural supply chain. NATO’s Walter Kaffenberger offered to sponsor such a workshop.

Dr. Kai Wegerich, of the Irrigation and Water Engineering Group at Wageningen University, asked about the role China and Russia could play as large investors in the region. As a way of involving all essential parties, Michael Penders, President of Environmental Security International, suggested a thorough review and revision of all existing agreements in the region to help define roles and responsibilities and to lay the foundation for enhanced regional cooperation.
 
Looking ahead

This was the second in a series of five policy dialogues, which will produce an action-oriented policy paper and build towards an international conference on regional cooperation over water in December 2009. Following are the remaining sessions in the series:

• Thursday, 28 May, 2009: Management of the Kabul river and Afghanistan’s relations with Pakistan;
• Thursday, 25 June, 2009: Management of the Helmand river and Afghanistan’s relations with Iran;
• July 2009 (date to be confirmed): Management of the Harirud and Murghab rivers and Afghanistan’s relations with Iran and Turkmenistan. *

In addition to these meetings, Angelika Beer, co-chair of the Executive Council of EWI’s Parliamentarians Network for Conflict Prevention, also announced the Network’s decision to hold a conference Jordan in November focusing on water security issues.

*Please note: The topics for the third and fourth sessions have now been reversed, and discussion of the Helmand River basin and Afghanistan’s relations with Iran will now take place on Thursday, 25 June 2009.