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TRANSBOUNDARY WATER MANAGEMENTThe world’s top 50 water consuming nations per capita (top) and per produced GDP (bottom)6000Water use/capita [m 3 / year]400020000TurkmenistanGuyanaIraqUzbekistanKyrgyz RepublicTajikistanUnited StatesAzerbaijanCanadaEstoniaKazakhstanSurinameIran, Islamic Rep.SudanUruguayNew ZealandPakistanEcuadorTimor-LesteAustraliaSwazilandViet NamArmeniaPhilippinesSaudi ArabiaEgypt, Arab Rep.UkraineGreeceThailandSyrian Arab RepublicBulgariaArgentinaPortugalItalyLithuaniaMadagascarJapanSpainMexicoMyanmarLao PDRLibyaCubaPeruChileNetherlandsSri LankaIndiaNorwayAfghanistanWater use/GDP [m 3 / USD]2.521.510.50Kyrgyz RepublicTajikistanMadagascarUzbekistanTimor-LesteAfghanistanTurkmenistanPakistanIraqViet NamGuyanaMaliNepalLao PDRSudanZimbabweIndiaMauritaniaNigerPhilippinesBangladeshGuineaMoldovaEgypt, Arab Rep.ArmeniaSyrian Arab RepublicUkraineSwazilandEritreaEcuadorSri LankaSierraLeoneAzerbaijanTanzaniaBhutanGuinea-BissauEthiopiaCambodiaHaitiThailandMalawiSenegalIndonesiaGeorgiaAlbaniaSurinameNicaraguaKazakhstanBurundiMoroccoSource: IWMI. Data: World Bank (2013)being strained by climate change, increasing population, expandingfarms and deteriorating water canal infrastructure.IWMI has been involved in the tributary work since 2007 anda broader water resource management and agricultural productivityprogramme in the Ferghana Valley since 2001. The SwissAgency for Development and Cooperation is a key donor. IWMI’sregional partner is the Scientific Information Center of Inter-StateCommission for Water Coordination. 4An explosive mix of ethnicities coexists in the basin, predominantlyKyrgyz, Tajiks and Uzbeks, who rely heavily on agricultureand livestock. The mountains and plains are dry. The river-fedvalley, often referred to as central Asia’s breadbasket, consumes ahuge amount of water per capita because of inefficiencies and toirrigate cotton and commodity crops such as wheat. Livelihoodsare therefore vulnerable to water variability. Poverty is high, as islabour migration, especially to Russia, in part because of the lack ofeconomic opportunities and services. Water resource managementon a regional scale remains unresolved. The region has been a politicalhotspot, marked by violent inter-ethnic clashes.However, evidence is growing worldwide that shared waterresources can be the catalyst for cooperation, rather than conflict.In a review of more than 500 international freshwater agree-ments covering 276 international basins, Oregon StateUniversity’s Aaron Wolf and IWMI found that watercooperation trumps conflict, especially in cases whereinstitutions have played a strong role. 5 “There’s been aconcern about water wars, but the reality on the groundis that countries have come up with many, many waysto cooperate over water,” says Giordano. “The manyways are not necessarily the theoretically correct ones.”Wolf described the IWMI project as a great opportunityto show how cooperation at a local level canspread upwards: “Given the complexities at the intersectionof hydrology and politics at even the smallestscale in this tense setting, IWMI’s work may well helptowards easing tensions around one of the most difficulthydropolitical problems in the world.”The Aral Sea regionWater management research in the region has gatheredsteam since the collapse of the Soviet Union in1991, with efforts focused on the threatened Aral Seaand two main rivers leading to it – the Syr Darya andthe Amu Darya.[ 54 ]