A session of the OSCE Permanent Council hosted by the Austrian capital heard a presentation by Sagit Ibatullin, the chairman of the International Aral Sea Salvation Fund (IASSF), who called on his colleagues from the Aral region for more effective interstate interaction to prevent the ecological threats in the sea basin.

-There is no other region on the OSCE space with more urgent eco-security problems than Central Asia, - S.Ibatullin said.

He named the drying of the Aral Sea a burning issue: at present its water area is 13 000km2 or 17%, water volume – 90km3 or 9% on 1961.

The political changes in the region, specifically collapse of the USSR had their toll on the stable water-energy exchange between the region’s states now facing threats to national, food and energy security. In the foreseeable future the states and economic sectors are likely to rival for water.

The main challenges the Central Asian countries encounter in their joint water resources management, within IASSF including, are the climate change, degradation of water and land resources and the population boom.

The presenter focused on the fruitful relations between IASSF management in Kazakhstan and the OSCE within a Memorandum on understanding on water security signed in 2009, within which a pilot project is carried out on introduction of integrated management system in water resources management in Kazakhstan’s Aral section.

S.Ibatullin quoted RK President Nurultan Nazarbayev to draw attention to the potential of regional interaction in the Aral problem: “Kazakhstan chairmanship in the OSCE avails the region of the opportunity to highlight the Aral-related issues to dialogue on them within this biggest regional structure. The OSCE can make a concrete decision – to initiate the mechanisms of monitoring and preventive addressing to environmental threats”.

In conclusion he called on the OSCE participating states to back this initiative financially and technically by elaborating and implementing regional projects to strengthen regional security in Central Asia. He was hopeful Kazakhstan chairmanship in the OSCE and IASSF would “lay groundwork for sustainable and comprehensive regional cooperation in CA”.

Olzhas Suleimenov

Vienna