Tajikistan and a new initiative on water

On Tajikistan and a new decade-long water initiative. Contributed by the embassy of the Republic of Tajikistan in the United Arab Emirates

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Last year, the UN General Assembly unanimously approved a resolution supporting an international decade for action on water for sustainable development. The initiative was formally launched by Emomali Rahmon, president of the Republic of Tajikistan, during the seventh world water forum in the Republic of Korea. The 10-year period will begin on March 22, 2018.

The initiative's objectives are to encourage the sustainable development and management of water resources for the achievement of social, economic and environmental goals. It will also seek to foster cooperation and partnership to achieve internationally-agreed goals and targets.

The resolution also identifies the need to improve knowledge generation and dissemination and the exchange of good practices. It also calls for the pursuit of advocacy, networking and partnership.

The president of Tajikistan, along with the heads of 10 UN member states, is a member of the panel on water.

Speaking at the world water forum, Mr Rahmon said: "The modern global challenges and threats, including the financial and economic crisis, population growth, climate change, increase of natural hydro-meteorological phenomena, water scarcity and, as a result, increasing levels of poverty, spread of infectious diseases, child and maternal mortality still require the mobilisation of our efforts and relevant measures".

This new initiative seeks to continue the work of the international decade for action on water for life, which began in 2005 and concluded in 2015. This earlier initiative was also launched by Tajikistan’s president in 2003. During the 10-year cycle of water for life, the government of Tajikistan, in cooperation with the UN, prepared and convened several important events in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, including a mid-term comprehensive review in 2010, an international conference on water cooperation in 2013 and a high-level international water-for-life conference in 2015.

The UN secretary general issued a report on the implementation of water for life. The report says: “The decade was responsible for many accomplishments. No other 10-year period in the history of the UN has witnessed as many water-related activities and achievements.”

In addition, the report noted that “the decade helped maintain momentum, provided the impetus for continued actions and activities and helped water become the focus of a level of attention greater than any witnessed previously”.

Furthermore, the decade “has shown where the shortfalls lie and what slows down progress on water-related goals and targets. There are still a myriad of constraints on human, institutional and financial resources”.

The secretary general’s report concludes that after a decade of concerted effort, the global water community is now in a much different position than it was in 2005: “While a large amount of work remains to be done, it is clear that much can be accomplished by building on the steps taken during the decade”.

The preparatory work for promotion of the new decade – which aims to continue the work of the previous decade – began at the conference convened by the government of Tajikistan and the UN in June 2015 in Dushanbe.

In addition, a symposium on sustainable development goals held last August in Dushanbe raised some very important water issues, which were then used in the preparation of the new draft resolution of the UN General Assembly.

The draft resolution – international decade for action on water for sustainable development, 2018-2028 – of the UN General Assembly was distributed among the permanent missions of the UN member states in September 2016.

Then, within the framework of the second committee of the UN General Assembly, which deals with economic and financial issues, the permanent mission of the Republic of Tajikistan to the UN held a series of informal negotiations with experts from member states.

During the negotiations, the draft resolution was finalised after taking into account the views and suggestions of all interested member states.

The negotiation process was successfully concluded on November 30 and the second committee of the UN General Assembly adopted the resolution with the following title: the international decade for action on water for sustainable development.