In the context of ongoing reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, the international community is implementing numerous water-related projects, such as the building of dams and irrigation canals. These projects often lack a regional perspective, which means that the trans boundary impacts of development projects are overlooked. The EastWest Institute and the Irrigation and Water Engineering Group of Wageningen University started a process to raise awareness among Belgian and Dutch policymakers and practitioners about the need for cross-border cooperation on water management as a way of improving regional stability.
Challenges and opportunities for trans-boundary water management
Clearly, progress on trans-boundary cooperation cannot be achieved overnight. For regional cooperation related to water sharing within the Amu Darya basin to have any chance of success, political will and commitment at the highest levels of the national governments in the region is a must.
A matter of political priorities
During the process it became clear that transnational management of Amu Darya’s water resources does not figure prominently on political agendas of the Netherlands and Belgium. This is mostly due to the massive security challenges in Afghanistan, which are considered to be of more immediate political relevance. According to the process organisers this actually confirms the very need to make policymakers more aware of the longer term challenges.
Linking researchers and policymakers
Researchers and policymakers can only bridge the gap between them if there is some sort of intermediate actor that allows for a double filtering mechanism: from policy strategies to research to address knowledge needs and from research to policy to communicate relevant conclusions.
Follow-up
The organisers plan to continue the online platform (www.amudarybasin.net) and envisage significant visibility of process output and results by making the policy recommendations and reports available to some 750 policymakers and experts. In addition, the EastWest Institute is exploring the possibility of a project on capacity development at river-basin level, engaging key local actors, regional organisations and donor agencies.
