Uzbekistan sets up executive body of int'l fund on saving Aral Sea
By Aynur Jafarova
Uzbekistan has established the Executive Committee of the International Fund for Saving of the Aral Sea (IFAS), Uzbek government sources told Azerbaijan's Trend news agency.
The decision was made by Uzbek President Islam Karimov, who presides over the fund.
According to the decision, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources Shavkat Khamrayev was appointed to fulfill the duties of IFAS Chairman.
Created in the 1990s by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, IFAS is aimed at financing joint projects and programs to save the shoaling Aral Sea and improving the environmental situation in the basin. On December 11, 2008 IFAS was granted observer status at the UN General Assembly.
The Executive Committee of the international fund works on rotational basis, moving from one country to another.
In late May 2013, during an international scientific conference dedicated to the 20th anniversary of IFAS, Kazakhstan handed over the chairmanship of the fund after chairing it for three years.
According to the interlocutor of the news agency, within its chairmanship in IFAS, Uzbekistan plans to focus on the issues of invigorating regional dialogue on the basis of international law, strengthening the potential of the fund, improving the socio-economic and environmental situation in the Aral Sea region, as well as expanding the fund's international contacts.
Saving the Aral Sea is one of the serious problems and without its solution it is difficult to talk about ensuring sustainable development in Central Asia, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said.
According to him, the Aral Sea today is a disaster zone, and the consequences directly affect the lives and health of hundreds of thousands of people, and have an adverse impact on the economic, social and environmental situation in the region.
Earlier President Berdymukhamedov said that the environmental state of the region -- due to the shoaling of the Aral Sea -- has a definite impact on nature and environment as well as living conditions.
"That's why it is necessary to join all the efforts of the states in the Aral Sea region and the world community," Berdymukhamedov said.
From the UN General Assembly rostrum, Ashgabat previously called for the creation of a special international group of experts which in collaboration with the UN and its agencies would develop a comprehensive an international legal document on ways of saving the Aral Sea.
Ashgabat offers developing a special UN program to deal with the Aral Sea and to establish a partnership with the UN interregional center on climate change. The Turkmen side has expressed its willingness to provide the necessary infrastructure for this work.
Speaking at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development Rio+20, held in Brazil in June 2012, President Berdymukhamedov said that the tasks of sustainable development in Central Asia would not be fulfilled without solving the problem of the Aral Sea.