Water Institutional Reforms in Kyrgyzstan - The Politics of Water Institutional Reform in Neopatrimonial States - page 97

al water strategy. But according to law, no one is responsible for its development, and it is not
clear who must approve it. It is a big problem”. 119
The chances that the National Water Strategy will still be approved and enter into force
are marginal. In the new Water Code of 2005 (see subsequent chapter), it was decided to estab
lish a National Water Council that is authorized to develop a Water Strategy (§ 18). The exist
ing Commission is not mentioned in this code. This duplication of functions between the
National Water Council and the National Commission on the Water Strategy was pointed out
by the Ministry of Justice in its comments on the 2003 draft version of the Water Code. 120
Regardless, the final version of the Water Code does not make any reference to the Commis
sion or the existing version of the Water Strategy, either.A round table discussion among water
experts in December 2006 hence again brought forward the old problem when it complained
about “the obvious absence of a clear and coherent strategy on the part of the government in
this sphere” (IPP 2006). Ten years after the establishment of the National Committee on a
Water Strategy the problem is still the same and the process seems to have started again from
the beginning.

6.3.2

General Legal Framework

In the USSR, law was de facto subordinated to party decisions oriented at the centralized
planned system. Hence, ambiguity and vagueness were not a problem, as law provided no
more than a very general framework for party decisions. In independent Kyrgyzstan, a formal
democratic state with rule of law, there is a need for clear rules and rights that law must pro
vide by which decisions can be oriented (Tursunaliev 2002). However, due to the lack of an
official water strategy or policy (see above), the laws established shortly after independence
lack coherence and are said to reflect only the ideas and interests of their respective authoring
agencies (ISRI, Socinformburo, FES 2004: 38f). One main reform effort after independence
therefore concerned the reform of the general water law. In this chapter we do not intend to
discuss every single aspect or every amendment but rather only to concentrate on the general
legal framework insofar as it defines the main governance principles and serves as a framework
for further bylaws and for existing laws must be adapted. The first sub chapter addresses the
development of the Water Code, the second one that of the Law on Transboundary Waters.

6.3.2.1 From the Law “On Water” to the Water Code

The Law “On Water” was the first water law after independence, passed by the Parliament on
January 14, 1994. Its development began in 1992 under leadership of what was at that time the
Ministry of Water Management ( MinVodKhoz ). 121 The law in its main aspects perpetuates the
respective law of the Kyrgyz SSR. It defines principles of water management and the general

119 „ .
. ,
. .“ Author's interview with a local consultant of a donor organization, Bishkek,
09/28/2004.
120 See Vodnyy kodeks Kyrgyzskoy Respubliki. Proekt (11 iyulya 2003 g) (Water Code of the Kyrgyz Republic. Draft, 11 July
2003), Annex (no pagination).
121 Author's interview with a senior official of DepVodKhoz , Bishkek, 09/11/2003.