A workshop on transboundary water management in Central Asia was held from 13 to 15 October 2010 in Almaty, Kazakhstan as part of the preparations of the second assessment of transboundary rivers, lakes and groundwaters under the Convention. The workshop was jointly organized by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), the Ministry of Environment Protection of Kazakhstan, the International Water Assessment Centre (IWAC) hosted by the Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute, and the Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia (CAREC). The press release on the event is available here.
The second Assessment is being prepared by sub-regions and work on Central Asia will focus on water bodies shared by Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, as well as the countries that share basins with those, which include Afghanistan, China, Islamic Republic of Iran, Mongolia, and the Russian Federation. At the workshop, more than 80 participants representing the concerned UNECE and non-UNECE States, international organizations and NGOs worked together to develop an accurate picture of all transboundary waters in the region - both surface and groundwaters - with the aim to monitor and bring positive changes to their management and lay the ground for strategic directions for future work under the Convention and in other political fora.