Rivers know no political boundaries - Chairman of IFAS Executive Committee Askhat Orazbay on Kazakhstan's chairmanship of the organization

This January the Republic of Kazakhstan took over the chairmanship of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea (IFAS), a unique and only institutionalized regional organization uniting all five Central Asian countries. Upon agreement with all IFAS Founding States, for the period of 2024-2026, Askhat Orazbay, who previously held the post of the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Kazakhstan to a number of countries and has extensive experience in the diplomatic field, has been appointed as the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Fund. Askhat Orazbay shared his opinion on the priorities and tasks of Kazakhstan’s chairmanship of the IFAS with Kazinform News Agency.

Mr. Askhat Tutkhishbayuly, first of all, let me congratulate you on your appointment as the Chairman of the IFAS Executive Committee. Could you tell us briefly about yourself?

After graduation, I worked in various fields and countries, I have experience teaching at the university, but for the most part of my career I worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, headed diplomatic missions in Turkmenistan, Indonesia (concurrently in the Republic of the Philippines) and Iran. I also was the Secretary General of the Economic Cooperation Organization headquartered in Tehran. I hold the Diplomatic Rank - Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary.

How do you feel about the appointment as the Chairman of the IFAS Executive Committee and what goals have you set?

I believe that not only the President of Kazakhstan, who is also the President of IFAS, but also the heads of the other four founding states of the Fund, who approved my candidacy, entrusted me with high responsibility and placed confidence in the further development of the cooperation in the water sector in general and the regional organization in particular.

I think that the Central Asian region is akin to me. After all, I graduated from a university in Uzbekistan, worked as a young specialist in Kyrgyzstan, headed the Embassy of Kazakhstan in Turkmenistan, visited Tajikistan for work many times and can speak local languages.

My goal as the Chairman of the IFAS Executive Committee is to strengthen the partnership between our brotherly countries in the context of water relations, because the basins of the transboundary rivers of Amudarya and Syrdarya are in general a huge basin of the Aral Sea that used to be the fourth largest lake in the world. And what has happened to the Aral Sea is a catastrophe of a planetary scale. The IFAS was established in 1993 precisely to address the main problems of the Aral ecological crisis.

What specific priorities and tasks have been set for the period of Astana's chairmanship in the Fund?

I would like to note that the priorities are set out in the Concept of the Chairmanship of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea for 2024-2026.

In particular, the document outlines the following tasks:

 continuation of work on improving the organizational structure and legal framework of the IFAS on the basis of previously adopted documents;

 implementation of the Aral Sea Basin Program-4 (ASBP-4) for the period of 2020-2030 and its systematic monitoring;

 implementation of the Regional Environmental Protection Program for the Sustainable Development of Central Asia for the period of 2020-2030;

 development of a long-term and sustainable regional cooperation mechanism for the effective use of water and energy resources in Central Asia, by taking into account the interests of all countries in the region in the fields of irrigation, hydropower and ecology;

 development of a Work Plan for the implementation of a unified automated system for accounting, monitoring, management and distribution of water resources in the Aral Sea basin;

 strengthening regional cooperation with international development partners, UN structural entities, financial institutions and the donor community;

 development of cooperation within the framework of generally accepted international environmental conventions, action plans, declarations and joint statements.

An important aspect of our organization's activities is its collective and collegial nature. The Work Plan of the IFAS Executive Committee for the period of the chairmanship will be traditionally prepared by official representatives of all the founding states and submitted for adoption at a meeting of the Board, whose members are Deputy Heads of Governments responsible for water resources and ecology.
All decisions are made by consensus.

Can you to tell us about the process of improving the organizational structure and the legal framework of the IFAS?

Regarding the issues of improving the activities of the IFAS, I would like to emphasize that this is a very difficult and complex process, and progress is gradual, but all parties express interest and actively participate in the work.

Just imagine the scale and all aspects. First, there are five countries with different geographical conditions and interests. But everyone needs water at all times. No water means no life, no progress.

Secondly, over 30 years of its activity, the IFAS has turned into a large and extensive regional organization. In addition to the Executive Committee, as the main working body, our structure includes the Interstate Coordinating Water Management Commission (ICWMC) with a Scientific Information Center, a Secretariat, the Amudarya and Syrdarya basin water management associations, the Interstate Commission on Sustainable Development (ICSD) with a Scientific Information Center and a Secretariat, the Regional Center for Hydrology of Central Asia and others.

Thirdly, as you can see, the IFAS is not only about the competence of water resources, it also includes environmental protection issues, a socioeconomic block.
In 2022-2023, the countries agreed to include energy in a separate block with an emphasis on hydro resources, which inspired Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to develop hydropower, including through the construction of new HPPs (hydroelectric power plants).

It should be noted that the work on improving the IFAS’ activities began after the Almaty Summit in 2009, a new impetus was given in 2018, when Turkmenistan put forward the initiative to create a special Working Group, and continued during the previous presidency of Tajikistan.

Could you reveal what will be done within the framework of implementation of the ASBP-4 and the Regional Environmental Protection Program for the Sustainable Development of Central Asia?

Both regional programs were adopted 2-3 years ago by the relevant Decisions of the IFAS Board and had a deadline for implementation until 2030. These are the main working documents, which provide for national and joint bilateral and multilateral projects. The projects which constitute the programs were selected from a variety of proposals also by consensus.

For example, the ASBP-4 provides for four directions: integrated use of water resources, environmental, socioeconomic, and improvement of institutional and legal mechanisms. There are more than 30 projects in the program and it must be admitted that the 4th Program is essentially a general collection of the most relevant projects gathered together, aimed at solving problems from the sources in the mountains and glaciers to the mouth and the Aral Sea region.

The REPPSD CA was prepared by our countries within the framework of cooperation in the Interstate Commission on Sustainable Development (ICSD). This document focuses on specific problems in the field of environmental protection: natural disasters, climate change, droughts, mudslides and floods, desertification, degradation of ecosystems and biodiversity, etc.

Our task is to implement the projects of these Programs, attracting the attention and funds not only of the countries of the Aral Sea basin themselves, but also of international development partners. Through joint efforts, we will be able to improve the situation, which, unfortunately, given the climate change (and warming processes are much more intense in our region than on the planet as a whole) generates new risks.

I believe that the IFAS has a great future, because, in fact, it is the only organization of its kind in the region and only together we are able to effectively counter these risks. Ecology and rivers that have been flowing for millennia and giving life to our peoples know no political boundaries.

Thank you for the interview!