The Politics of Water Institutional Reform in Neo-Patrimonial States - A Comparative Analysis of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan

6 Water Institutional Reforms in Kyrgyzstan (S. 102-103)

The previous chapter described the framework conditions of water governance in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. How do these affect water institutional reforms, and which reforms are actually decided and implemented? This chapter will portray in detail the water institutional reforms in the Kyrgyz Republic. For an understanding of the processes and interactions of WIR, it is necessary to first give an overview of the administrative structure and key organizational actors in water governance (chapter 6.1).

It is equally important to obtain a general understanding of the general discourse on water in the country and the predominating problem perception (chapter 6.2). After these two more general sections, chapter 6.3 will elaborate on the political process of water institutional reforms: First, the formulation of general policy norms and direction in the National Water Strategy (6.3.1) and the general legal framework (6.3.2) are covered.

After that, the reform programs to reach the objectives outlined in the policy papers are analyzed. These are the administrative reorganization (6.3.3), the introduction of irrigation service fees (6.3.4) and the transfer of local irrigation management (6.3.5). Each section will describe the processes and actors of political decision making and those of implementation with the outcome so far. Chapter 6.4 will then analyze in how far the neopatrimonial context factors have an influence on and can explain the processes and outputs. The final part (6.5) will summarize the findings of the Kyrgyz case study.

6.1 Administrative Structure and Key Actors of Water Governance

Who is formally entitled to decide and implement water policy? Who is actually involved in the processes? In order to assess the role of different actors in water politics in Kyrgyzstan, this chapter will give an overview of the organizations involved in water governance and their competencies.

It must be noted that the structure of water management has changed several times since the country gained its independence, and it changed again shortly after the research period. Partly, these structural reforms will be the object of research (chapter 6.3.3). The given overview aims to include the most important former and actual agencies and competencies, however, due to the constant flux, we can make no claim of full-fledged compilation.

6.1.1 The Water Administration

The highest executive body responsible for the usage and regulation of the water resources in the Kyrgyz Republic is the so-called DepVodKhoz, the Department of Water Management (Departament Vodnogo Khozyajstva) at the Ministry of Agricultural and Water Management and Processing Industries (Ministerstvo Selskogo i Vodnogo Khozajstva i Pererabatyvayushei Promyshlennosti) (see Figure 9). The DepVodKhoz evolved from the former Ministry of Water Management, MinVodKhoz, which was dissolved in 1996 (see chapter 6.3.3.2). It consists of three main sub divisions: The Water Resources and Water Use Department is responsible for the allocation and distribution of water resources. The Irrigation Systems Maintenance Department is in charge of the physical maintenance of the infrastructure. The Department of Economics, Finance, and Registration controls the distribution of financial resources.