Water Institutional Reforms in Kyrgyzstan - The Politics of Water Institutional Reform in Neopatrimonial States - page 92

agriculture in neighboring Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Adequate mechanisms for cost sharing
on the part of the downstream states are not in place. 108 This question of equitable cost and
benefit sharing is

in the context of regional relations characterized by power asymmetries

and mistrust severely ideologized and used for political power struggles (Giese, Sehring

2007).
These foreign water policy issues are much more present in public and expert debates
than are national and local level problems and challenges of water governance and reform
policies. Nevertheless, we shall now turn to the level of domestic policy. As was outlined with
the policy cycle model (see chapter 0), the basis for any reform process is a perceived problem.
So, the first task of an analysis of water reforms in Kyrgyzstan will be to identify the problems
perceived by different actors. The perception of problems was recovered by qualitative content
analysis of water expert interviews (in total, 30 interviews were evaluated for the following
analysis). 109 In the analysis, three thematic blocks evolved (see Table 11 ):
1) Technical, financial, and human resources capacities;
2) Political institutional factors;
3) Other issues.
Table 11: Perceived problems in water management
Technical, financial,
and HR capacities

Insitutional factors Other

Technical
infrastructure

Administrative
fragmenation

Interstate water
regulation

54% 28% 38%

Inadequacy of water
law

Lack of finance 34% 28% Rational water use 25%

Staff
qualification

11%

Socio-economic
environment

26% Water quality 25%

Policies of interna-
tional donors

13%

Level of awareness 9%

Lack of political
strategy

9%

Total 100% Total 100% Total 100%

Source: own data collection and analysis.
The first block summarizes problems seen broadly in the lack of capacities. Most are related to
the state of the technical infrastructure, which concerns the deterioration of irrigation infra
structure as well as of monitoring facilities (gauging stations, meteorological posts, etc.). A
second relevant aspect is the lack of finance; another point is the qualification of staff. All
three are closely interrelated as for example the lack of financial means results in the non
implementation of maintenance work as well as in low salaries not attractive for qualified staff.

108 Concerning the Chuy and Talas rivers, such an agreement meanwhile exists between Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
See www.talaschu.org.
109 For details on the interviews see chapter 5.2