The regional workshop under the Environment and Security Programme continues its work in the Turkmen capital. The specialists of the national ministries and departments, environmental scientists, experts from the Central Asian states – Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan, the officials of the Lebap Province administrative department and the Amu Darya State Reserve, the representatives of the diplomatic missions accredited to Turkmenistan and the authoritative international organisations - OSCE, NATO, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) take part in the forum organised by the Ministry of Nature Protection of Turkmenistan.

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) put forward the Environment and Security Programme (ENVSEC) joint initiative in 2002. The prioritized directions and geographical zones of the programme implementation were identified at the first workshop for the Central Asian region in Ashgabat in 2003.

The agenda of the second day included the discussions on the specific ways of implementing the emergency action programme to improve the ecological situation in the Amu Darya River basin within the ENVSEC framework. The programme stipulates for elaborating the interstate environmental strategy aimed at stabilizing the situation, improving the quality of water in the river basin and tackling the problems of efficient water resources use and management, designing a new environmentally sustainable profile of the Amu Darya River.

Those speaking at the forum noted that the Amu Darya River and its feeders are the main source of water in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan playing a crucial role in the countries’ agricultural development, the main source of energy for Tajikistan and of paramount importance for Afghanistan’s economic development. In this regard, the problems of efficient and effective use of land and water resources in the river basin were of particular importance to the participants.

Turkmenistan and Karakalpakstan, where the ENVSEC programme had started, presented the national reports. In this context the reports were based on the assessment of the current conditions in the Aral Sea region. The urgent issues of climate changes, efficient use of water and biological resources in the Aral Sea basin, supply of high-quality drinking water in the region were discussed. The participants focused on the tasks of mapping and detecting environmental and security risks. The themes under discussion included water and energy use and supply, land resources and irrigation, biodiversity preservation, natural disasters, droughts and desertification impact, organic pollutants.

The participants discussed the further steps and ENVSEC initiatives in the Amu Darya River basin, reviewed international environmental co-operation and considered the international mechanisms of interaction under the programme.

The forthcoming workshop, which will be held in Kabul, Afghanistan, will focus on improvement of the upper regions of the Amu Darya River basin.