OSCE-supported conference discusses Integrated Water Resources Management in Kazakhstan

ALMATY, Kazakhstan, 11 October 2010 - The promotion of the Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in Ili-Balkhash basin is the topic of the OSCE Centre's conference that started today in Almaty.

The two-day conference organized in partnership with the Water Resources Committee of Kazakhstan, the European Commission and the United Nations Development Programme brought together more than ninety representatives from the Parliament, Government and non-governmental organizations of Kazakhstan, as well as participants from China. The conference will discuss legal and institutional framework of trans-boundary co-operation in the Ili-Balkhash basin, as well as IWRM principles and water resource-saving technologies.

"Water resources are present in all human activities, and unlike other natural resources do not distinguish boundaries. All countries in the Central Asian region are interconnected through the common water basin system, and sustainable technical and political arrangements for the efficient use of water resources need to be put in place", - said Ambassador Alexander Keltchewsky, the Head of the OSCE Centre in Astana. "Today's conference is an example of the OSCE's work to foster the dialogue aimed at the establishment and consolidation of integrated water resource management systems in the region."

Trans-boundary co-operation in IWRM is a priority set by the 2003 OSCE Maastricht Ministerial Council's Strategy Document for the Economic and Environmental Dimension.