Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan bolster transboundary water cooperation
The basins of the Shu and the Talas rivers cover northern Kyrgyzstan and southern Kazakhstan.
Signing the Agreement "On the Use of Interstate Water Facilities on the Shu and the Talas Rivers" in 2000 for the purposes of sharing water separation facilities and managing water resources in these basins, the governments of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan established the Joint Kazakhstan-Kyrgyzstan Commission on the Use of International Water Facilities on the Shu and the Talas Rivers, or the Shu-Talas Water Commission, which has been operating since 2006.
On 12 and 13 December of this year, the final seminar of the Shu-Talas Basin Commission "Assistance to Transboundary Cooperation and Integrated Management of Water Resources in the Shu and Talas River Basins" took place in Taraz.
The strategic action program was made with the involvement of a group of experts of the concerned ministries and agencies of the two countries. More than 50 experts from two countries and representatives of international organizations drafted the program aimed at improving the sustainability of socio-economic conditions and ecological systems of the Shu and the Talas river basins.
The seminar was attended by representatives of Kazakhstan's Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Agriculture, heads of the Zhambyl Region Ecology Department, the Shu-Talas Basin Inspection, the branch office of Kazvodkhoz RSE, the branch office of Kazhydromet RSE, and representatives of the regional administration.
The seminar addressed issues of adaptation to climate change and long-term action programs for environmental protection, for the use of interstate water facilities on the Shu and the Talas rivers.
The workshop participants underlined the topicality of the reports and materials that demonstrate the economic and environmental benefits of the use of advanced technologies.