Water Institutional Reforms in Kyrgyzstan - The Politics of Water Institutional Reform in Neopatrimonial States - page 94

allocation, however, are not mentioned by political actors of the central level as pressing prob
lems. Strong awareness of the problem of fragmented policy making and legal inconsistencies,
on the other side, is especially visible with representatives of donor organizations and NGOs
but not by the central bureaucracy which should be expected to suffer from it most. Water
quality issues were rarely mentioned. This reflects the low significance attached to ecological
aspects in general. These are mainly only considered due to donor pressure that make envi
ronmental assessments an integral part of projects and support the Ministry of Ecology. 113
Table 12: Problem perception by different organizational actors

Number of
interviews

Technical, financial,
and HR capacities

Organization Insitutional factors Other Total n

WUA 7 56% 44% 0% 100% 18

State administration,
meso level

5 46% 38% 15% 100% 13

State administration,
central level

6 36% 41% 23% 100% 22

International
agency

6 33% 52% 14% 100% 21

NGO or
independent

3 25% 58% 17% 100% 12

Academic
insitutions

3 13% 38% 50% 100% 8

Total 30 37% 46% 17% 100% 94

N = number of problems mentioned (more than one possible).
Source: own data collection and analysis.

Despite the differing perceptions, it is apparent that institutional shortcomings are definitely a
prominent problem and as such are acknowledged by political actors. The Comprehensive
Development Framework of 2001 formulates several institutional objectives concerning water
usage: changes in water legislation; the completion of Water Cadastre; the establishment of a
uniform database on water usage; the establishment of WUA; and the introduction of econom
ic tools (Djailoobaev 2004: 76). Also, the national report for the UN SPECA initiative on the
rational and efficient use of water and energy resources in Central Asia puts institutional issues
on the forefront and mentions the same aspects. It highlights “poor coordination of water
consuming sectors, lack of clarity in the separation of functions and powers between agencies”
as major problems (SPECA 2004: 46). The following sections will now look at the institutional
reforms conducted and to what extent they addressed these problems and reached their objec
tives.

113 However, in practice those environmental aspects of projects are hardly implemented, often only an expert
assessment is commissioned in order to fulfill the donor requirements.