The principal surface water sources of the Aral Sea region are the river basins of the Amudarya and Syrdarya. The source of these rivers is in the mountainous republics of Kyrgystan and Tajikistan where water use for energy production competes with water use for agricultural production in the down-river countries of Kazakstan, Turkmenestan, and Uzbekistan and flows into the Aral Sea. The issues surrounding the Aral Sea crisis are international, and policy solutions require regional cooperation among the newly independent Central Asian Republics (CAR). Since water flows among all of the Republics and since it is shared in different ways, there must be significant cooperation among the water sharing Republics, especially in the Syrdarya basin.
The scope of the work addresses the need for the development of a multi-objective screening model to aid in the determination of fair and equitable arrangements for sharing the waters of the Syrdarya River between the CAR countries of Kyrgistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakstan, and Tajikistan. Such a model may prove to be useful in assisting CAR decision makers in negotiating agreements or treaties between the countries of Kyrgistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakstan and Tajikistan over the distribution of releases from the reservoir.
Topics: Transboundary Water Management, Water Management,
Keywords:
Syr Darya, Transboundary water issues, Water Management,