The issues of rational use of water resources occupy the main place in the sphere of sustainable development of both the Central Asian region (CA) and Uzbekistan.

According to the UN Water and Sustainable Development Programme, water resources are a fundamental factor for social, economic and environmental components of sustainable development.

Despite the fact that Central Asia is one of the regions with abundant water resources, experts predict that water scarcity will only increase over the next decades, which makes it necessary to resolve the problem promptly.

Rights of citizens, improving, restoring and protecting

Water and Sustainable Development: from Vision to Action, 2015, p.6. URL: https://www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/pdf/WaterandSD_Vision_to_Action-2.pdf (accessed 27.11.2023).

bneGREEN: Central Asia’s water crisis gaining rapid momentum, cities forced to introduce water rationing. URL: https://shorturl.at/aeks9 (accessed 27.11.2023).

Transition to “green economy” in Uzbekistan: Opportunities and challenges, 2023. URL: https://cabar.asia/en/transition-to-green-economy-in-uzbekistan-opportunities-and-challenges (accessed 27.11.2023).

This implies that there is a joint body, a mechanism for transboundary co-operation; regular (at least once a year) formal communication between riparian countries in the form of meetings (at political or technical level); agreed common objectives, strategy, co-ordinated management (action) plan; and regular (at least once a year) exchange of data and information at bilateral level, etc. See: 9th World Water Forum: Central Asia for Peace and Development, 2022, p. 16. / URL: http://cawater-info.net/9wwf/pdf/position-paper-ru.pdf (accessed 27.11.2023).

It is worth noting that Tajikistan is a party to the 1998 Agreement on Basic Principles of Cooperation in the Rational Use and Protection of Transboundary Water Bodies of the CIS Member States, the provisions of which largely repeat the 1992 Convention.

Along with the 1998 Agreement, the use of the Syrdarya River is largely regulated by the Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic and the Government of the Republic of Uzbekistan on the use of fuel, energy and water resources, construction and operation of gas pipelines in the Central Asian region. The Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic and the Government of the Republic of Uzbekistan on the use of fuel, energy and water resources, construction and operation of gas pipelines in the Central Asian region also regulates the use of the Syrdarya River to a large extent.