Water Institutional Reforms in Kyrgyzstan - The Politics of Water Institutional Reform in Neopatrimonial States - page 102

6.3.3.1 Management along Hydrographic Boundaries

One management objective of IWRM is the management along hydrographic boundaries. This
means that water resources should not be administered by sectoral or administrative approach
es but based on hydrographic units. There should be one body responsible for each basin and
not several bodies in each administrative unit like provinces or districts. Kyrgyzstan also offi
cially endorsed this approach. At the time of independence, water resource management was
based on administrative boundaries of oblasts and raions (see chapter 6.1.1 on water administra
tion). Already in 1997, the oblast water management departments ( OblVodKhoz ) were reformed
into basin water management departments ( basseynoe upravlenie vodnogo khozajstva ). Thus, formal
ly, it may seem that the reform is already long implemented. In practice, however, the Obl
VodKhozes have simply been renamed without any structural changes. This is justified by the
argument that the management would already occur to hydrographic principles to a certain
degree, as the oblasts would coincide with river basins. 133 While this is partly the case, adminis
trative and hydrographic boundaries do not exactly coincide. For example, the Chuy River
originates in Naryn oblast , then crosses Issyk Kul oblast before entering Chuy oblast and finally
flowing into Kazakhstan. Most OblVodKhozes do actually not manage a basin, but only that part
of a basin that is in their administrative boundaries. Even inside their territories they do not
have full control, as hydrological facilities such as bigger dams and reservoirs are managed by a
distinct agency. So, despite the reform the water administration in practice still occurs along
administrative boundaries instead of along hydrographic ones (SPECA 2002: 41).
Consequently, in the Water Code of 2005, one objective is again the reform towards basin
management. It plans to establish basin councils with representatives of all stakeholders and
basin management units ( basseynovye vodnye administratsii ) to be responsible for policies, rehabili
tation, and fees (§ 10, 11). However, according to the vice director of the DepVodKhoz , the
state structures are intended to stay the implementing agencies without any changes in their
structures. 134
This persistence of the administrative principle is also reflected in the newly established
Water User Associations (WUAs) (see chapter 6.3.5). This reform will be discussed in detail
later, but it should be noted here that the transfer of local irrigation management from aiyl
okmotu (a/o) to WUAs in theory also marks the transfer from administrative (local municipali
ties) to hydrographic (one channel subsystem) boundaries. 135 In fact, however, most WUAs are
not established on hydrographic considerations. They as well as the aiyl okmotu are aligned
along the boundaries of the FSK. In Chuy province, these often coincide with hydrographic
boundaries as many FSKs had a cohesive irrigation system. This is, however, not always the
case, particularly not in the south of Kyrgyzstan, where irrigation systems predate collectiviza
tion. 136 Thus, the situation at the local level is similar to the oblast level: As the administrative
boundaries are partly oriented along hydrographic ones, management often is based on hydro
graphic boundaries. Yet this is rather unintended and not the result of a reform. The underly
ing principle is still the administrative one, no matter which new names for organizations are
introduced. In the local case study, for example, the WUA “ kd orset ” is oriented along the terri
torial boundaries of Frunze a/o, although it should for hydrographic reasons include the

133 Author's interview with a senior official of the DepVodKhoz , Bishkek, 09/11/2003.
134 Author's interview with a senior official of the DepVodKhoz , Bishkek, 11/03/2005.
135 There are also long-term plans of WUA federations along hydrographic lines. However, as the WUAs themselves
are still very weak, these plans are not yet concrete and realization in the near future seems unrealistic.
136 Author's interview with a university professor, Bishkek, 10/01/2003.