Problematiche di gestione dell'acqua e implementazione dell'IWRM in Asia Centrale: un approccio comparativo tra la Media Valle dello Zeravshan (Uzbekistan) e la Valle dell'Arys (Kazakhstan)

Since ancient times water resources have always played a strategic role in societal and territorial development. These dynamics have been even more strategic in the arid and semi-arid regions throughout the world where rivers were diverted and canal systems were designed in order to increase the irrigated lands and to allow the development of societies, as occurred for instance along the Nile, Indo, Tigri and Eufrate valleys. In the past the relationship between water control and the emergence of strong despotic states led to the rise of the so-called hydraulic societies, based on the experiences arising within agricultural societies characterized by state-centralized water works. Whereas until the 1970s water resources management was considered a technical issue mostly under the control of state-centralized waterbureaucracies, in the last decades a significant change has occurred due to different issues ranging from population growth and relevant political changes to land degradation and inequitable water access. Therefore it emerged that the management of water resources is not merely a technical issue, but a sociopolitical, economic, and environmental one which involves a wide spectrum of different actors throughout the society and their rationales. Nevertheless in most of the developing countries these changes were influenced and somehow hampered by political and economic issues. In order to strengthen these processes since the 1990s several international donors and agencies have sought to promote a new water management framework, the Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), based on the “Dublin Principles”, discussed at the conference on “Water and the Environment” 1992. The IWRM –and the implementation of its pillars- aims to improve water resources management according to a multi-perspective sustainability: environmental, economical, social and political ones. Moreover, to strengthen this framework and its rationale, the Irrigation Management Transfer (IMT) and the creation of the Water Users Associations (WUAs) were supported. Although guidelines to support the implementation in the different states were provided, in the last decade a wide debate among members of the academia and water professionals have emerged discussing its definition, its pillars and in particular the implementation procedures throughout the world. The present research aims to analyze and understand the Integrated Water Resources Management(IWRM) implementation processes,its logics and related water issues, in post-Soviet Central Asia—a wide heterogeneous arid and semi-arid region mostly included in the Aral Sea basin. These processes will be analysed in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, focusing at the local level (Middle Zeravshan valley –UZB-, Arys valley –KAZ-) according to a comparative approach. The following questions arise: What are the logics which have affected the IWRM implementation? Were the national sociopolitical systems able to shape this process according to their strategies and aims? National ways to the IWRM, or processes which hampered its implementation have emerged?In order to answer these questionsthe focus was on the institutional/organizational and operational structure of the state water authorities at the basin level, the district water departments, and the water users associations (WUAs) at the local level. Hence, three districts for each valley were chosen: Urgut, Nurabad, and Pastdargom (Samarkand province, Uzbekistan) and Tyulkibas, Ordabasy, and Otrar (South-Kazakhstan province, Kazakhstan). Focusing on the methodology, a comparative qualitative approach was used in order to collect the data: semi-structured interviews and informal talks were conducted to all the stakeholders (state bureaucrats, experts, WUAs’ members) involved in the water management processes. The evidence from the two case studies shows that the IWRM has not been implemented as initially sponsored by the international donors; Although with differences between the two states, the IWRM implementation was strongly influenced and shaped by local governments, somehow upsetting the framework’s aims. Only the pillars which did not question and change the current water bureaucracies and related structures were selected and implemented, in order to achieve their national political-economic strategies; therefore two different national ways to the IWRM emerged. Based on a political geography perspective, this research is essential in in-depth understanding and in enhancing the debate on the IWRM implementation and related sociopolitical changes, in a region still influenced by the transitional processes which followed the collapse of the Soviet Union.