Discussions on Aral Sea issue underway in Turkmenistan

ASHGABAT. KAZINFORM A two-day meeting of the regional working group on the development of an action program to assist the countries of the Aral Sea basin kicked off in Ashgabat, Trend reports with reference to the Turkmen website «Golden Age».

The participants of the event, in whichrepresentatives from Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan aretaking part, will also discuss the institutional and legal mechanisms of IFAS.

The process of preparing a draft regionalprogram is in the active phase. The document is being prepared in accordancewith national consultations.

Established in the 1990s with the foundingof Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, the IFAS isaimed at financing joint projects and programs to save the Aral Sea and improvethe environmental situation in the Aral Sea region. In December 2008, IFAS wasgranted an observer status in the UN General Assembly.

Turkmenistan is affected by the problem ofAral Sea's ecology. It is most noticeable in the country’s northern DashoguzRegion, where problems have arisen with the provision of drinking water, thefight against salinization of cultivation lands, land degradation anddesertification.