ASHGABAT (TCA) — On December 5-6, Ashgabat hosted a workshop and a meeting of an Inter-sectoral Working Group on the development of multi-sector investment projects for achieving water, energy and food security in Turkmenistan within the European Union funded Nexus project, the EU Liaison Office in Turkmenistan reported.
The events were organized within the Project “Central Asia Nexus Dialogue Project: Fostering Water, Energy and Food Security Nexus Dialogue and Multi-Sector Investment”. The project is funded by the European Union and implemented by the Regional Environmental Centre of Central Asia in partnership with the International Union for Conservation of Nature and with the support of the Executive Committee of International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea. The first phase of the project will last until December 2019 with a total budget of EUR 1.52 million (with the EU contribution of EUR 1.3 million).
The training workshop introduced all participants to the methodology, templates and criteria used by the EU Nexus project for selection of multi-sectoral investment projects of regional importance. The Investor’s Guide and the Knowledge Platform developed for Central Asian professionals by EU WECOOP2 project introduced practical tools to support the development of bankable project proposals.
The participants of the events could practice new skills through discussion of the investment project ideas confirmed at the third meeting of project’s Regional Steering Committee (13 October 2018, Astana), selecting three most feasible ones and their further elaboration. Proposals address such issues as modernization of the water management system and facilities and improvement of reclaimed irrigated lands in the basin of the Amudarya and Syrdarya Transboundary Rivers.
One more important result of the event is a selection of the pilot project for testing benefits of water, energy, food security Nexus approach. It proposes the construction of a traditional hydro technical architectural construction for household purposes – Sardob.
Sardob is a construction buried in the ground and covered with a stone vault pool for the collection, storage and use of fresh drinking water. The vault or Gumbaz over the basin prevented significant evaporation of water, to some extent protected it from dust and sandstorms, created a permanent shadow. It is used in some regions of Turkey, Iran and Central Asia.
Mr Lubomir Frebort, Head of the Liaison Office of the European Union in Turkmenistan said: “The EU strategy for Central Asia stresses the importance of respecting the strategic interests of all five Central Asian countries, while promoting multilateral and regional frameworks of dialogue and increased adhesion to international conventions and legal principles governing the environment, trans-boundary water resource management, and the consequences of the disappearance of the Aral Sea.”
