Abstract
Will the institutional response to the aral sea crisis be capable of solving central Asia`s water problems?
An analysis of the institutional design of the International Fund of Saving the Aral Sea (IFAS).
After the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991, the five Central Asian Republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan had to come to grips with their new status as sovereign states. A fundamental issue that has struck at the very heart of their new-found independence was their reliance on shared water resources. As the Republics increasingly have pursued their own national interests, conflicts concerning the utilisation of these transboundary resources have been on the rise. Demographic trends and a steady decline of the quality and quantity of the water available has been reinforcing the tensions.
The Central Asian Republics have repeatedly tried to address their disagreements. Various attempts to establish a viable and functional water management institution have been made, but without much success. On February 28th, 1997, the Republics therefore agreed on a re-organisation of the institutional framework related to transboundary water resources. The result was a new organisational structure with the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea (IFAS) as the supreme body.
It is still unclear, though, whether this new institutional response to the Aral Sea crisis is capable of improving the Republics water management practices. More precisely, it is uncertain whether the present IFAS is as effective as required. One reason to this possible lack of effectiveness lies within the choice of design of IFAS s institutional features.
This study sets out to make an analysis of IFAS s institutional design in relation to a set of normative propositions regarding the institutional requirements for regime effectiveness. The underlying assumption is that such an examination can produce a better understanding of how the IFAS functions, and point at specific institutional features that possibly hampers the IFAS s performance as a regional institution.