INTEGRATED WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT-INTERNATIONAL BEST PRACTICE -- INTEGRATED WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT: THEORY AND PRACTICE -- INTEGRATED WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT: EXPERIENCE IN THE ARAL SEA BASIN -- CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF INTEGRATED WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT IN THE SYRDARYA RIVER BASIN -- PARTICULAR CHARACTERISTICS OF INTEGRATED WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT (IWRM) IN THE AMUDARYA RIVER BASIN -- IWRM FINANCIAL, ECONOMIC, AND LEGAL ASPECTS: THE EXAMPLE OF THE "IWRM-FERGHANA" PROJECT -- ENSURING OF STABILITY AND EVEN WATER DISTRIBUTION AT NATIONAL AND LOCAL LEVELS -- THE FUTURE OF THE PRIARALIE -- SOCIOECONOMIC ASPECTS OF INTEGRATED WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT IN CENTRAL ASIA -- ON PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT -- WATER PRODUCTIVITY INCREASE-THE MAIN GOAL OF IWRM AND WAYS TO OVERCOME POVERTY -- IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ARAL SEA BASIN SOCIOECONOMIC MODEL: AN ASSESSMENT OF THE OPPORTUNITIES TO BE GAINED THROUGH REGIONAL ECONOMIC INTEGRATION -- ADDRESSING THE NEED FOR INTEGRATED WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT AT THE REGIONAL LEVEL -- PROSPECTS FOR CENTRAL ASIA DEVELOPMENT-INTEGRATED WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT AS REGIONAL ISSUES SOLUTION -- INTERSTATE, INTER-SECTORAL SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL INTEGRATION -- THE ROLE OF STRATEGIC AND NATIONAL PLANNING IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF WATER MANAGEMENT -- TRANSFER OF WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT TOWARD BASIN PRINCIPLES -- BASIN MANAGEMENT BASED ON RESOURCE CONSERVATION. "Without water there is no life" ThisbookistheresultofacollaborativeprojectbetweentheUNESCOCentre for Water Law, Policy and Science (formerly the International Water Law ResearchInstitute)attheUniversityofDundee,andtheScienti?cInformation Center of the Interstate Commission for Water Coordination in the Aral Sea basin(SICICWC). Theprojectwasdedicatedtoexaminingthepracticalissues of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) in Central Asia, and culminated in a workshop held at Bishkek in February 2004. The workshop brought together some of the leading experts in the ?eld and resulted in important insights into some of the issues surrounding the transboundary and nationalmanagementoftheregion'ssharedfreshwater. However,thespeedof developments in the region has been so rapid that even in the relatively short time since the workshop took place, signi?cant changes have taken place. As a consequence of the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the resu- ingemergenceof?venewlyindependentstatesinCentralAsia-Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan-the water resources that in the past were the sovereign domain of a single country (USSR) had - cometransboundary. Thisprecipitatedtheneedfor?ndingnewapproachesto manage the now transboundary waters of the two main rivers of the region- the Amudarya and Syrdarya Rivers-in order to meet national demands of the?vesovereignStatesthatdependeduponthesewaters. Thus,inSeptember 1991, 1 month after independence, the national Ministers of water resources fromeachofthe?vecountriesconcludedandsignedadocumentsettingforth the agreed need for joint water management of the basin waters. On February 18, 1992, an agreement was reached on the procedures for such management and the Interstate Commission for Water Coordination (ICWC) was est- lished as the management agency responsible for the joint management of the transboundary waters in the region.