Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- The Director of the International Institute of Central Asia (MICA) held a meeting with the regional representative of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in Central Asia, Muhsin Hafiz.

During the meeting, the parties exchanged views on the work being done in Central Asia to improve the efficiency of water resource use through the introduction of modern innovative technologies and best international practices.

The IWMI representative informed about current projects being implemented in Central Asia. In particular, IWMI, together with the European Union, within the framework of the project “Effective water distribution in the transboundary river basin of Central Asia” is creating a decision support system for water distribution in two sub-basins of the Syrdarya River, namely in the Naryn (Kyrgyzstan) and Karadarya (Uzbekistan) catchment areas.

A special feature of this project is that the decision support system being created will be based on real-time monitoring data, an integrated approach to modeling water demand, availability and use, machine learning and data storage in a transboundary context.

In addition, IWMI, in order to demonstrate the best innovative and environmentally friendly solutions in the field of small hydropower in Central Asia, within the framework of the project “Hydropower for you - Central Asia”, is working on the construction of two demonstration hydroelectric power stations: one environmentally friendly run-of-river power station with low pressure with a capacity of 500 kW in Kyrgyzstan and one medium-pressure power plant with a capacity of 2 MW in Uzbekistan.

In total, since 2001, IWMI, together with international partners, has implemented 20 projects in Uzbekistan and 6 regional ones, including: “Assessment of transboundary water and land resources in the Amu Darya basin”; “Increasing the efficiency of water use in the Aral Sea region”; “Organization and conduct of training on technologies for increasing water use efficiency when growing cotton in Uzbekistan.”

At the end of the meeting, the parties agreed to develop cooperation aimed at uniting and bringing together Central Asian scientists through participation in events organized by the parties in the form of conferences, round tables, brainstorming sessions, as well as building human capital and personnel qualifications, through organizing short-term courses, trainings and seminars.

IWMI is an international non-profit research institution with headquarters in Colombo (Sri Lanka), offices in 13 countries and unites more than 10 thousand scientists from 30 countries. It is part of a group of research centers of the Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research, created in the interests of ensuring food security in the world.

The regional representative office of IWMI with an office in Tashkent has been operating since 2001.