Water Unites

Some are deep, with weak or medium links to local surface water systems that are recharged
far from the border. Others are shallow and flow from neighbouring countries towards
transboundary rivers. Though transboundary aquifers in Central Asia are large and have
significant water resources, knowledge about them is still fragmentary and requires further
research. To this day, no comprehensive legal and institutional regulation for transboundary
groundwater is in place in Central Asia. 2
Distribution of transboundary groundwater in Central Asia
Kazakhstan
Uzbekistan
Kyrgyzstan
Turkmenistan
Tajikistan
Additional efforts for water cooperation
Apart from the agreements and regulations related to IFAS, the Central Asian states have
made a number of additional multilateral and bilateral efforts to jointly regulate water use.
In 1996, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan signed a separate permanent agreement for
an equal distribution of water resources. It states that 50% of the Amu Darya flow at the
Kerki gauging station is allocated through the Karakum Canal to Turkmenistan, and the
rest to Uzbekistan.
In 1998, the governments of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic and Uzbekistan
signed an «Agreement on the Use of Water and Energy Resources of the Syr Darya Basin».
This agreement provided that Kyrgyzstan would discharge water from its reservoirs in
summer for the downstream states of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, while these would
deliver fuel to Kyrgyzstan in winter, so that it does not need to produce hydropower.
In 1999, Tajikistan joined the agreement so that the working regime of the Karakum
reservoir could be included. The agreement requires annual protocols to define exact
2 UNECE 2007, Rakmatullaer et al. 2010, MKUR 2006, FAO AQUASTAT
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