Water Institutional Reforms in Kyrgyzstan - The Politics of Water Institutional Reform in Neopatrimonial States - page 95

6.3 Institutional Reforms

After the overview on the administrative framework, the main actors, and the key problems of
water governance, this chapter now looks at the content and processes of water institutional
reforms. Although all individual reforms are interrelated and in practice difficult to separate,
for analytical purposes they will be analyzed individually. This is important in order to assess
later whether certain aspects are differently affected by neopatrimonialism. For each reform,
the decision making process and the involved actors will be reconstructed (as far as possible),
the implementation progress so far described, and the outcome assessed. In the sub chapters
on hydrographic management approaches, ISF and WUA, short excursuses on the local case
studies will strengthen the argument.

6.3.1 The National Water Strategy

During the time of the Soviet Union, water usage was determined by Soviet division of tasks
between the Republics (see above ch. 0). With independence in 1991, the new sovereign state
was confronted with the task of developing its sovereign policy. Kyrgyzstan lacked a political
strategy for the water sector. To address this gap, the government established in 1996 or 1997
the National Committee on a Water Strategy. 114 This committee was designed to develop a
policy strategy and be involved in lawmaking processes (Hassan et al. 2004: 10). Initially, the
National Water Strategy (NWS) was intended to be the basis for the new Water Code (see
chapter 6.3.2.1). Due to the fact that the discussions on the Strategy took longer than antic
ipated, the development of both proceeded simultaneously. 115 Finally, the Water Code was
approved by the Parliament before the National Water Strategy that was not approved at all.
The draft strategy of the National Committee was published in 2003. We will now first de
scribe its content and then the process of its development.
The objective of the NWS is to develop a long term strategy for water usage in Kyrgyzs
tan in acknowledgment of the dependence of other states on the resource as well. The draft
NWS comprises an inventory part that covers water resources, the effectiveness of water
usage, water quality, water and sanitation sector, irrigation, hydropower, fishery, water econo
mization, technical facilities, and monitoring. On basis of these data, it makes recommenda
tions for the future direction and improvements of water resource management in Kyrgyzstan
with regard to domestic and transboundary waters. The fundamental recommendations of the
draft strategy for domestic water policy are as follows:

To reform the legal foundation in order to overcome contradiction between laws and
sublegislative acts, concretize rights, functions and competencies of involved bodies,
and specify regulation and control;

To reform the institutional structure by decentralizing and privatizing implementation
functions so that the national agencies can concentrate on strategic planning, legal
and economic regulation, coordination between ministries as well as between state
and private bodies;

114 Exact date was not available.
115 Author's interview with a water expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies under the President (MISI),
Bishkek, 09/16/2003.