ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan, Feb. 14
By Huseyn Hasanov– Trend:
The delegation of Turkmenistan participated in the 9th session of the meeting of the EU–Central Asia working group on environment and climate change that was held in Brussels on Feb. 12–13, Trend reports with reference to the Turkmen Foreign Ministry.
Specialists and experts working in the sphere of nature protection, climate change and water resources of the countries of Central Asia and the EU took part in the session.
Upon the outcome of the working group's meeting, the Technical Assignment and the working procedures were approved, as well as the Programme of the EU–Central Asia working group on environment and climate change was adopted.
The meeting was organized in the framework of the EU–Central Asia Platform on cooperation in the area of environment and water resources which encompasses the following priority fields: the management of nature protection activities, closed cycle economy, sustainable production and consumption, climate change and water resources management.
Turkmenistan borders with Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Iran and Afghanistan and uses water resources coming in accordance with the agreed quotas from four transboundary rivers Amu Darya, Tejen, Atrek and Murghab.
With the founding from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea (IFAS) was established in the 1990s with the aim to finance joint projects and programs to save the Aral Sea and improve the environmental situation in the Aral Sea region.
IFAS obtained the observer status in the UN General Assembly in December 2008.
The special attention is paid to improving the regional action plan for environmental protection in Central Asia and accelerating the process of accession of the regional countries to the Framework Convention on Environmental Protection for Sustainable Development in Central Asia within IFAS.
Turkmenistan is affected by the problem of Aral Sea's ecology. It 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.