A two-day meeting of the Regional Working Groups in the framework of the preparation for the Action Program to assist the countries of the Aral Sea Basin (ASBP-4), and Institutional and Legal Strengthening of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea (IFAS) has started in Ashgabat on November 25.
According to the Turkmen Foreign Ministry, the meeting is hosted by the Executive Committee of IFAS with the assistance of the Regional Program "Transboundary Water Management in Central Asia” of the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) and the European Union project “Nexus Dialogue in Central Asia” implemented jointly with the Regional Environmental Centre of Central Asia.
Representatives of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, the Executive Committee of the IFAS, the Interstate Commission for Water Coordination (ICWC), the Interstate Commission on Sustainable Development (ICSD) are participating at the meeting of the Regional Working Groups.
During the first day of the session, the participants viewed the renewed proposals on the formation of the Fourth Action Program to assist the countries of the Aral Sea Basin (ASBP-4) and discussed the relevant social-economic and environmental issues.
The participants noted the effectiveness of the events carried out in the framework of the chairmanship of Turkmenistan in the IFAS and underlined the success of the previous Programs aimed at the resolution of the hydroeconomic, social-economic and ecological problems that arose in the region due to the Aral crisis.
For inclusion in the ASBP-4, the IFAS founding countries and their international partners prepared almost 140 proposals covering all four areas of the Program. During the previous meeting of the Regional Working Group, held in Ashgabat in July this year, the participants selected 36 priority projects from them. These projects were finalized and submitted for approval to the current two-day meeting of the Working Group.
