UN ESCAP WORKSHOP ON SMALL HYDRAULIC STRUCTURES SAFETY IN CENTRAL ASIA
The UN ESCAP workshop on small hydraulic structures safety in Central Asia took place in Moscow on June 30–July 2. The event was organized by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, the UN Economic Commission for Europe and the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. The ACIG Group of Companies provided organizational support of the event.
The main purpose of the event was the development of common approaches to assessing the safety of Class IV low pressure hydro-technical systems, sharing the best practices and experiences of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Russia in this field and giving recommendations for further cooperation in the sphere of water resources management in the region.
Opening the seminar, the head of the UN ESCAP Subregional Office for North and Central Asia Nikolay Pomoshnikov underlined the importance of hydraulic structures safety in the region. "The problem is very important, it has long been on the agenda, and many countries are seriously engaged in it. This project is not developed from scratch – the Economic Commission for Europe has already done huge work on large dams." He also said that not only various international organizations, in particular, the Eurasian Development Bank and the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea, were actively involved in the project, but also Russian authorities, such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Federal Service for Environmental, Technological, and Nuclear Supervision. "Russia has already done a lot. Our task is to exchange opinions on what has been achieved, and how we should move on, because by this project we are just establishing the framework for further work", – he said to the participants.
Member of the Board of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea Shukhrat Talipov emphasized the importance of hydraulic structures for Central Asian countries, and mentioned that they are among the most common engineering structures in the region: "They help to address the issues of land irrigation, drinking water supply, industrial production, hydropower, flood protection and to solve other important tasks. In this regard, ensuring safety of hydraulic structures in the regionbecomes the most urgent goal, for achieving which it is necessary to take preliminary measures on minimizing the risk of emergency situations."
Representatives of the countries noted that the laws on safety of hydraulic structures had been adopted only in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, and specialized institutional control system had been established only in Uzbekistan. It is clear that Russia has accumulated considerable experience in this area, which can be relatively easily adjusted for Central Asia, since almost all Class IV low pressure hydro-technical systemsin the subregion were designed and constructed according to Soviet technical standards.
Based on this experience, within the framework of the three-day workshop, experts shared the best practices and experiences in this area, discussed bilateral cooperation for providing the safety of individual dams and hydrotechnical systems at on transboundary rivers and considered the possibility of elaborating a common approach to assessing the safety of Class IV low pressure hydro-technical systems. This will allow developing the legal framework for low pressure hydro-technical systems, classifying them according to the danger level and the effectiveness of preventive maintenance activities and thus making the best managerial decisions regarding their repair or reconstruction, financing and staffing the organizations responsible for all stages of this process. In addition, the methodology developed during the workshop will further form the basis for the relevant software. At the end of the workshop the participants visited the hydraulic structure in the Krasnogorsk district of the Moscow region and could see how the developed methodology for assessing the safety of small hydraulic structure is put into practice.
