Achieved results of Phase IV

The Project aims at the establishment of sustainable water use management system in the areas command to the pilot canals in one of the CAR zones that have faced social and economic problems, i.e. in the Fergana Valley. Implementation of IWRM principles has allowed raising the productivity of irrigated agriculture by 20-25 % on average as well as optimizing the water use practice. As a result, the average net profit per a composite hectare, according to the data taken from the farms-indicators for 2008 and 2009, has increased up to 480 $/ha in Uzbekistan (in 2001, the statistical average in the republic was about 245 $/ha) and up to $560 and 760 $/ha in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, respectively. The calculations (model of the financial and economic wellbeing of water management organizations in Uzbekistan) have shown the possibility to increase the net profit per a composite hectare to 600 $/ha.

Proceeding from the estimated population size in the project zone being 390-395 ths. people or 56 ths. families (with an average family of 7 people) and net profit per a composite hectare conventionally taken as 400 $/ha, the net profit per family will come to 824 $/year or 2.3$/day. With higher net profit in the republics, that per family will rise too.

a)    For current Project phase

·     The need  for adopting IWRM principles is increasingly acknowledged by decision makers at highest levels. This was contributed among other things by the lessons, results and ideas of the project. Some examples of this are set forth below.

·       There’s an evidence that the Project proved to be instrumental in contributing to revising the Law on Water and Water Use in Uzbekistan. The revised law was adopted in the late 2009. As a consequence, the farm optimization process was carried out aiming at their enlargement and re-organization of WUAs in accordance with the hydrographization principles. Thus, water resources management at the tertiary canal level has become controllable. The Project monitored the acceptability of implementation and effectiveness of by-laws produced for practical realization of the Law on Water and Water Use.

·          As Tajikistan is fully set to develop its own strategy for Irritation Management Transfer (IMT) for 2010 to 2015, the project’s expertise and lessons learnt among those from the other projects and donors in Tajikistan (e.g WinRock/ISAID etc.) were actively sought and resourced by the Tajik Government. Project suggestions regarding approaches to establish IWRM organizations at WUA and higher management levels (e.g. CMOs etc.) were were incorporated in the working document.

·             Authorities in each country have acknowledged the necessity of public participation and water resources management based on hydrographic principles. During the previous phases, new institutional structures (WUA, UCWU, CWC, CMO, and SMO) were set up and officially registered including CWC which is established on the basis of a joint governance agreement over the Main Canal Management Organization. In Phase 4, the following have been accomplished: 1) full hydrographization at the main canal and WUA levels; 2) prolongation of joint governance agreements ; 3) conclusion of water delivery agreements between WUAs and SF-CMO, agreements on shared obligations towards operation and maintenance of inter-WUA canals between WUAs and ISAs, and land reclamation service agreements between WUAs and Provincial Hydrogeological Reclamation Expeditions (Uzbekistan).

·         Specialists at different administrative levels have acquired not only theoretical knowledge of methods, but also the application of the methods and tools developed within the project.

·          Farmers and water users are starting to recognize WUAs as authority on the issues related to fair water allocation and efficient water utilization.

However, also difficulties of the IWRM introduction program are becoming apparent. Even though, IWRM is widely acknowledged and practically followed by both the Central Asian governments (except for Turkmenistan) and major donors (WB, ADB, EBRD etc.), it was extremely difficult to get all such donors in each particular country to synchronize their work for more consistent large-scale implementation of IWRM principles. This is thought to be a result of the current bidding systemfor project implementation, when the philosophy and direction of project activities is virtually based on IWRM as solely perceived by hired external consultants (USAID, EU). Thus, the IWRM approach of socio-technical persuasion as implemented and promoted by the IWRM-FV project has got wider practical adoption beyond project areasonly in Uzbekistan (on a total area of over 300 ths. ha). The two additional propjects adopting the approach are RESP-2 and WAREMASP, where implementation of organizational management rests with and is co-financed by SDC. As for the other IWRM projects in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, such as those funded by UNDP they are mostly top-down implemented with major focus on national river basins.

b)        Concrete project tasks (A, B, and C) set in Phase IV have been achieved as well as the appropriate outputs have been delivered in form of 10 main results. However, in general:

-   The financial sustainability of UCWU and WUA increased but still remains low;

-     Inter-linkages between WUAs and the SFMC MO regarding water allocations are not fully developed. In addition, the consequences of the farm optimization process caused some discrepancy of the boundaries of the organizations. The adjusting process is still ongoing (this will also lead into the reduction of the number of WUAs);

-     Official Joint Commissions on TSR Khojabakirgansai and Shaximardansai is not established yet. The project induced initial institutional arrangement needs to evolve further.

-      Common vision on approach of establishing IWRM organizations has been fully promoted and generally agreed with active donor water management projects in the field however common vision and approach of establishing IWRM organizations is not fully agreed with active Donors in the water sector in the Region.

c)       Estimation of the use of water saved at SFC to increase water availability in the neighboring BFC area can exemplify the project effectiveness.

It is well known that in recent years the Uchkurgan Hydropower Plant has been operating in the energy-oriented mode which has resulted in almost complete stopping of water supply to its tail-water areas in the nighttime during vegetation periods and, as a consequence, in problems of water withdrawal to the BFC headworks. Thanks to more efficient water demand management practice, introduced under the project, on average 70 mln. m3 of water was annually saved during the vegetation period and transited to the BFC system to ensure appropriate water supply for the crops in that zone. Considering the conveyance losses, the total volume of water delivered to the WUAs in the BFC area comes to about 56 mln. m3, which enabled local farmers-water users to annually gain an additional net profit from agricultural production of at least $2 mln/year (based on estimated baseline profitability of agricultural production in the project area at the initial stage). At that, in the high-water year of 2010 about 300 mln. m3 of water was transited from SFMC to the Syrdarya river to increase total water supply level at the lower reaches of the river.

All the activities carried out under the Project aimed at more stable water supply and higher productivity and profitability of crop production on irrigated lands. For example, even in the dry year of 2008 the water shortage problem was overcome owing to effective water resources management, while in the high water year of 2010 the per unit of area water supply did not exceed the baseline level of 2004.

The WUA status as well as water users’ confidence in the WUA has been steadily rising. This can be seen from the fact that the farmers agreed to increase the WUA water service fees from 9.01 $/ha in 2009 up to 13.8 $/ha in 2010 (by 53 %).

2.   During the current project phase, the number of female farmers participating actively in the project has grown; women have the positions as WUA directors, WUG leaders, and became members of UCWU. For example, while in 2008 9.1% of all WUA employees were female, this number increased to 12% in 2009. In addition, during 2008 to 2009, 670 of the 9000 participants of training workshops were female.