Water management and development assistance: focused on Uzbekistan

This article deals with the management of water, its pollution, and with the consequences for development assistance in Central Asia. We argue that water is most affected by human activity in Uzbekistan out of all the countries of Central Asia, and we provide an overview of water management projects in this country. Data from international organizations that are concerned with development (FAO, OECD, World Bank etc.) show that the two main Uzbekistan’s environmental problems still are a lack of water resources and the strong anthropogenic impact on water. The values of ODA+OOF received by Uzbekistan fl uctuate around USD 200 million per year. A considerable proportion of this amount has been used for environmental development projects each year. The most signifi cant projects are funded by the World Bank and the water project of the World Bank in Uzbekistan with highest funding was “Water Supply, Sanitation and Health Project” (1997 - 2008). Many other ODA donors work in Uzbekistan. Their project budgets are lower, however, the results of their activities are often of more importance for the affected localities.