Water Institutional Reforms in Kyrgyzstan - The Politics of Water Institutional Reform in Neopatrimonial States - page 101

evolved as a main issue in the discourse about water. 131 This may be one reason why there are
no mechanisms for the implementation of this law and also no efforts to do so. The Kyrgyz
government is said to claim its right without concrete implementation activities (Mamatkanov
2003: 101f). At this point it is insightful to review on the process of decision making:
The law on transboundary waters is commonly associated with one Member of Parlia
ment: Turdakun Usulbaliev. Sometimes the law is even called “ zakon gospodina Usulbalieva ”
“the law of Mr. Usulbaliev”. As mentioned earlier, Turdakun Usulbaliev is the former First
Secretary of the Kyrgyz Communist Party. The fact that his version of problem perception
found its way to the top of the agenda and the law was passed shows his continuing influence
as former leader of the Kyrgyz Soviet Republic. He was supported by the influential director of
IWP&HP, who is a much valued academic. Just like Usulbaliev, he gained much of his authori
ty in the Soviet Union. For several years, the IWP&HP was already lobbying for water pricing
mechanisms. According to the director, this law presents the interests of Kyrgyzstan, while the
proposals of the DepVodKhoz would rather reflect the interests of the neighboring countries.
He sees it as the merit of his working group that the significance of inter state water distribu
tion was finally recognized by officials at the highest levels of the Foreign Ministry while the
staff of the DepVodKhoz and the Agency of Energetics demonstrated a lack of understanding
for it. He perceives himself more as a politician than as a scholar. He says he fought for years
to convince the government and ministries that “would not understand the problem” to see
matters his way (Mamatkanov 2003: 99 103). 132
The law can therefore be seen as a personal mission of Turdakun Usulbaliev. This was al
so visible in the subsequent discussions with representatives of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
Even when they in their letter of critique addressed the concerning ministries or the Parlia
ment, it was Usulbaliev who replied to them (see Usulbaliev 2002). Although the problem is
only perceived by some actors, it is a prominent topic of political debate and much more on
the agenda and in public discussion than other water problems and reforms. However, similar
to the Water Code, this is again a policy document contested by considerable parts of the ex
pert community and without implementation mechanisms.
After these first two chapters on Kyrgyzstan focused on the general policy strategies and
mainly on decision making, the subsequent chapters will look at several concrete reform
processes in decision and implementation.

6.3.3

Administrative Reorganization

The fragmentation of competencies in the water sector is considered a serious problem. One
reform effort was therefore to establish a structure capable of comprehensive, integrated man
agement of water resources. According to the current discourse, this should be reached by
introducing hydrographic principles as well as cooperation and coordination mechanisms
among all concerned bodies in the different sectors. These two reforms will now be looked at
in detail.

131 There is considerable disagreement over whether water is to be treated as an economic good - in general, but
especially in international respects. The reasons are besides normative also practical considerations on the impossibility
of its implementation.
132 Author's interview with the director of the IWP&HP, Bishkek, 09/15/2003.