Tajikistan

The Project is being executed in both the Kyrgyz Republic and in the Republic of Tajikistan, and aims to alleviate poverty in the region, and to contribute to internal and cross-border stability. It comprises three separate but closely linked sets of activities including development of a social safety net, and enhancing agriculture and water management.

Lessons Learned

Overall objective of the project is to improve the living conditions of people in rural areas in Khatlon and Sughd Regions by providing them with renewed access to safe drinking water. The aim is to provide clean and sustainable drinking water to people in rural areas in Khatlon and Sughd Regions.

Lessons Learned

The project will take place in Khatlon and Sughd Regions of Tajikistan and aims to support community development and poverty alleviation. It comprises three separate but closely linked sets of activities including water access and management, agricultural development and support to the implementation of local governance reform. Through water, access will be improved concomitant to management being strengthened. Agriculture will seek to lay a sustainable foundation for improved agricultural production not only through the provision of irrigation water, but also through capacity building and improved access to agricultural inputs. Finally, this project will seek to provide support to the development of professional, accountable and efficient Jamoat administrations. All three interventions seek to reduce poverty and support community development through a series of interlocking objectives aimed at building the capacity of local authorities; delivering targeted training to beneficiaries; mobilizing communities through Jamoat Development Committees; and finally, the technical rehabilitation of supporting infrastructure.

Lessons Learned

The objective of the project is to provide clean and sustainable drinking water, and promote better hygiene practices through improved sanitation facilities and education in a sustainable manner in rural areas in Khatlon Region.

Lessons Learned

The UNDP Tajikistan Communities Programme builds on the success of the Rehabilitation, Reconstruction and Development Programme (RRDP) — a six-year programme with a strong emphasis on rehabilitation of war damaged infrastructure and support to the peace process through reintegration of ex-combatants and returnees and employment generation. The Communities Programme focuses on longer-term concerns of sustainable development: partnership building at the local level, capacity building of local governance and local economic development. The programme supports the implementation of Tajikistan’s Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) and the UNDAF outcomes to address economic initiatives, access to clean water and governance at the local level. The programme has area offices in three out of four regions in Tajikistan: Kulyab and Shartuz in Khatlon region, in Gharm in Rasht Valley and in Khujand in Sughd region.

Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned

too early..

The project covers new management of the water supply in the Ferghana Valley where locals are battling with
excessive salinity, desiccation and declining agricultural fertility. Part of the responsibility
for these phenomena lies primarily with uneconomic irrigation systems where
approximately 50 percent of the water goes to waste. Under this project, the aim is to
identify ways of saving water and increasing soil fertility, as well as improving water
management in the countries concerned – Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
Measures became imperative because a drop of up to 50% in crop yield has resulted in
food shortages and triggered a sharp increase in food imports. The Ferghana Valley,
which in itself is very fertile, has a fairly high population density of 900 people per square
kilometre. During the initial phase of the project, the legal, financial and institutional
situation in the region was studied, the necessary measures determined and possible
donors pinpointed. In the second phase, which is still devoted to planning, the initial
results will be presented to the project partners and the authorities before the projects
themselves are addressed. The project is being conducted in conjunction with the local
organization BVO Syr Darya, the Interstate Commission for Water Coordination, the
Scientific Information Centre and the International Water Management Institute.


The Project Phase III consolidates, strengths and disseminates the new institutional arrangements and improvements in the field of water and land productivity achieved within Phase II and intensifies the vertical integration of different Project components. In this context the emphasis will be focused on organizational capacity building.

The Project develops the principles and methods of sustainable financing system at canals, WUA and farms levels. This activity will include in discussing issues related to low farm gate prices and production quotas in a political dialogue with the governments and analyzing possibilities to introduce innovative financial tools for financing rehabilitation and improvement works at WUAs and farms levels.

Development of cooperation network with other donors and project will become more essential during Phase III. This will include dissemination of know-how and IWRM principles developed during Phase II within of other donors' projects as well as a coordinated approach to a political dialogue with the governments.

; Press Release on the occasion of launching Phase IV (1 May 2008 - 31 Dec 2010), Feb 2008:
: The goal of the IWRM project is to improve and reorganize the institutional and managerial methods of water distribution in the Ferghana Valley. The project mainly addresses the possibilities for water saving, improving agricultural productivity, organizing water administrations, promoting and institutional building-up of the new public - private participation forms and the improvement of water allocation mechanisms among the users and between the three countries.

: Overall, the project aims to contribute to more secure livelihoods, increased environmental sustainability and reduce water allocation disputes and supports the agricultural restructuring in Central Asian countries through improved management of water resources in the Ferghana valley.

: So far three phases of the project have already been successfully implemented. During the Phase I, a detailed analysis of the legal, institutional, economic-financial and managerial issues, as well as an analysis and evaluation of earlier experiences, methodologies and systems developed by other donors and regional and state organizations in the water management sector, was carried out.

: Major achievements of the project during phase two were the increased awareness amongst the policy makers about the principles of IWRM, improved water distribution along canals, demonstrated bottom–up approach, demonstrated potential for increasing yields and water productivity by up to 30 percent.
Throughout the third project phase the efforts have been made to improve efficiency of modern governance policies, management procedures and institutional arrangements introduced at the national, regional and local levels during the second phase. The project also focuses on expansion of improved irrigation management practices and strengthening cooperation with other IWRM projects in the region.

: In this phase the project puts greater emphasis on the reform of the water policies at the national level. As a result, innovative solutions for irrigation canal management and sustainable water user associations and effective methods for sustainable financing of the system at the canal, WUA and farm level shall be developed and introduced.

Lessons Learned

• SDC-Ferghana IWRM III-ExtRev FINAL Nov07.pdf

Lessons Learned