Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, April 2
By Huseyn Hasanov – Trend:
A regular meeting of the regional working group on improving the legal framework of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea (IFAS) will be held in Turkmenistan in May 2019, Trend reports referring to Neutral Turkmenistan newspaper.
The agenda also includes the development of an action plan to assist the countries of the Aral Sea basin (ASBP-4). For this purpose, 117 projects have been formed. Based on these projects, it is planned to draw up regional plans for adaptation to the effects of climate change, developing measures for the restoration of aquatic ecosystems, and planting trees on the dried basin of the Aral Sea, the article says.
Representatives of the scientific and information center of the Interstate Commission for Water Coordination and the “Amudarya” and “Syrdarya” basin water associations will take part in their revision, systematization and discussion.
At the next stage, it is planned to hold meetings with international partners for funding approved proposals.
Established in the 1990s with the founding of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, the IFAS is aimed at financing joint projects and programs to save the Aral Sea and improve the environmental situation in the Aral Sea region. In December 2008, the IFAS was granted observer status in the UN General Assembly.
Turkmenistan is affected by the problem of the ecology of the Aral Sea, which is most noticeable in the country’s northern Dashoguz Region, where problems have arisen with the provision of drinking water, the fight against salinization of cultivation lands, land degradation and desertification.