Experts, scientists, representative of international organizations, ecological movements and financial institutions are participating at the conference.

The conference is aimed at formulating and agreeing regional agenda of the 6th World Water Forum, which is directed at achievement of the Millennium Development Goals in the area of guaranteeing and sustainable supply of water to public, economy and nature, developing joint measures on ensuring water supply, informing international community on position of Uzbekistan on rational management and use of water resources in the region.

The initiative of holding of the regional conference has been supported by the World Water Council.

The participants of the conference listened to the welcome address of President Islam Karimov, in which he outlined fundamental approaches of Uzbekistan to the regional problems of rational use of water resources of transboundary rivers, which have always provided the vital needs of more than 50 million people living in six states of the region.

The President called on the conference participants to establish a mechanism for effective regional cooperation to guarantee that the transboundary rivers are used according to generally accepted international rules and regulations to ensure equality, mutual benefit and fairness for all parties, since this issue is of a vital value for the residents of the region.

In his address, President of Uzbekistan stressed: “Today, humanity is facing an important task – to preserve nature for present and future generations, and to protect it from threats and challenges, which could affect the lives of people and disrupt the existing system of nature use.”

The times of “easy” water has ended, the humanity has entered a new era of shared water use, said the president of the World Water Council Loïc Fauchon in his video address to the conference. The vision is changing toward the concept of a more caring attitude towards nature. Thanks to the efforts of several countries, including Central Asian states, the way is paved for a more responsible attitude towards water resources and their rational sharing. Everyone’s right to water has been proclaimed by the UN, and no one can deprive any person of this right, which is essential for life. Separation of water among countries, and between people and nature should be just. He noted that the peoples of Central Asia had the richest culture in the area of water management, and their experience was very important for solving water problems around the world.

The conference was noted that the desire of countries located upstream of the region’s major rivers Amu Darya and Syr Darya to exploit cross-border water resources in violation of international standards was of a great concern. It was emphasized that issues of just water management in Central Asia have received considerable attention among the global community. The attempts to implement projects of construction of large dams in the headwaters of the two rivers may cause irreparable damage to the entire ecosystem of the region and lead to technological, social, environmental and humanitarian disasters. These projects were developed more than 40 years ago and have long been outdated in technical terms. Most importantly, these projects do not take into account the high seismicity of the planned construction zone, which is 8-9 on 12-point scale. In the last 110 years, more than 20 major earthquakes have occurred here. The Rogun hydro power station project in Tajikistan envisages construction of the world’s highest dam with the height of 335 meters. Its construction could trigger a massive earthquake that will create a great danger to human life.

Moreover, as calculations of independent experts have shown, in the case the dam is broken up to 1,5 million hectares, and over 700 settlements in the territory of Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, where about 5 million people live, will be flooded. With transition of Rogun water reservoir to energy mode of operation, water shortages in the vegetation season will increase on average by more than 22%, and nearly twice in dry years. This will lead to drought and emergence of vast desert areas, and in winter to flooding of arable lands and settlements. Thus, it was emphasized at the conference, the implementation of such projects is fraught with a new environmental disaster, much more dangerous in its scope than the Aral Sea crisis.

In this regard, the participants highlighted the wise and visionary approach of President Islam Karimov to address issues related to use of transboundary river resources. As the head of the state repeatedly stressed, an independent environmental and technical expertise of such projects with participation of international experts needs to be conducted to clearly define their compliance with the principles and norms of international law on use of transboundary watercourses, as well as identify any possible negative consequences of their implementation for the population, economy and ecosystems of all countries in the basins of these rivers.