International Conference on problems of Aral Sea ends in Tashkent

March 15, 2008

On March 12, 2008 more than 200 experts and scholars from over 20 countries of the world – the international and regional organizations, financial institutions, local and foreign scientific centers busied in addressing the problems of ecology, climate change and water resources management participated at the international conference “On problems of Aral: impact on the gene pool of population, flora and fauna and international cooperation for mitigating the consequences” initiated by the President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov.

The welcoming address by President of Uzbekistan to the participants of conference has prompted a big resonance in which the Uzbek Leader has called on the international community to pay a serious attention to the existing complex of ecological, social, economic and demographic problems in the area adjacent to Aral which are of an international and global nature in terms of their origins and implications. The presidential address has also appealed to use the water resources of transboundary rivers of the region in a reasonable and equitable way.

During the conference the participants discussed the reasons and consequences of today’s tragedy of the Aral Sea and opportunities of surmounting its serious consequences on the gene pool of population, flora and fauna of area adjacent to Aral.

Some of the delegates to the conference shared their opinions and impressions.

Thus, noting the high level of organization of conference Momoko Chiba, the professor of International University of Health and Welfare of Japan, has said that subject of the conference has had a global nature and existing problems had to be resolved in a global scale. “The ratification of international conventions cited in the address of President of Uzbekistan to the participants of the conference as well as the rational use of waters of transboundary rivers of Amudarya and Syrdarya by all states of the region are very important,” – Ms. Chiba has further said.

Executive Director of Institute for Central Asia and Caucasus Research of Japan, Professor Tetsuji Tanaka said: “I was highly impressed by the address of President Islam Karimov to the participants of the conference. Today when more than 50 million people live in the Central Asian region it is important to reasonably use the existing water resources”.

Kwon Kiwon of the Korean Environment Management Corporation has positively assessed the outcomes of the conference. In particular, he said that he was deeply impressed by the catastrophe of the Aral Sea the scale of which he personally eye-witnessed by visiting the city of Muynak in the Republic of Karakalpakstan on March 11. Mr. Kiwon noted that initial tasks set by the leader of Uzbekistan on resolving the Aral tragedy reflect the readiness of Uzbek side to address the problem in cooperation with other states of the region based on international norms.

The head of Water and Climate Change Center at the Wageningen University of Netherlands Wim Kofina has underscored that this conference became the first serious step to a comprehensive resolution of the Aral problem.

The Director of Center of Russian Studies at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Pan Davey has said: “Coordination of approaches and cooperation between the countries of Central Asia is necessary condition to address the water and energy problems in Central Asia.

The participants of the conference have also dwelled on the importance of further improvement of system of managing and using the water resources of the Aral basin in the framework of existing interstate agreements with taking into consideration the universally accepted international norms and regulations.