Using Environmental Information Exchange on Trans-Boundary Waters As a Mechanism for Confidence

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South Caucasus Water Program

The Kura Joint Technical Task Force (JTTF) for Data Exchange and Confidence Building in the South Caucasus

Draft Project Concept

The number of international donor funded ongoing and accomplished water management projects in the South Caucasus consider improving water resources management and collaboration between the three countries of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia as one of their main goals. These countries share common water resources and are heavily depended on them as main source for drinking and sanitation, municipal and industrial water use, irrigated agriculture, etc. The Kura and Aras Rivers represent major water ways of South Caucasus. Their joint watershed occupies almost two thirds of the entire region. Trans-boundary part of the water flow in the region is very high, especially for most downstream country of Azerbaijan, where it makes about 70% of the total flow. Therefore information exchange among the South Caucasus countries on quantity, quality and availability of water resources is vitally important.

The main objective of this proposal is to define practical steps for establishing Joint Technical Task Force for the Kura River Basin (the Kura JTTF) and initiate data exchange procedures to promote confidence building and trans-boundary cooperation among the South Caucasus countries for effective water resources management.

Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia before early 1990s were parts of a single country - former Soviet Union. Thus exchange of information among the “Soviet Republics” on the conditions and availability of water resources was routine and planned exercise. After break up of the Soviet Union, however, these newly emerged countries have been facing very difficult economic situation for quite a long time that, in addition of ethnic conflict among Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorny Karabakh, led to the very complex political implications and loss of trust and confidence among each other. Current cooperation (if such) on water issues has been very fragmented and has unstable character; there does not exist any formal agreement on the exchange of necessary information and, if still practiced, cooperation is “forced” exclusively by donor-funded projects.

Natural way for such cooperation would be establishing of joint trans-boundary management body, with the multiple operational and controlling functions. It is possible that sometime in a future countries will arrive to this point. However currently because of difficult political situation in the region it is less likely that two, out of three countries, will agree on any formal relationship involving political activities. On the other hand relationships between scientists and technical personnel on a practical level have been yet very active, even during the most difficult times. Numerous successful donor funded regional projects are very good evidence of this. Therefore one of the possible ways of cooperation these days seems to use scientific and technical approach and limit their activities with the exchange of data and information on water quantity and quality, water use, waste-water discharge, pollution hot-spots, etc.; exchange of water management and action plans; exchange of policy documents, laws and regulations; exchange of critical information in case of emergencies (floods, accidental pollution); exchange of scientific studies, research papers, specific assessment reports, action plans for pollution control and maintenance of environmental flows, etc. In general all these functions may be well represented by scientific panel of any international trans-boundary commission. Founding of such limited functional unit in the Kura basin can greatly motivate future cooperation and assist for confidence building among the South Caucasus nations. First steps in this regard have been taken by USAID funded South Caucasus Water Program (SCWP), implemented by PA Government Services, Inc. (http://www.scaucasuswater.org/) by establishing regional monitoring Task Force to represent one of the key objectives of the program – Develop Scientific Capacity and Promote Use of Sound Science for Water Management. This Task Force has been operational almost two years and mainly served as an advisory board for the program. However the last regional meeting in September 2007 defined more practical functions for the Task Forces. One such function includes conducting joint water quality monitoring activities at trans-boundary area of the Central Kura and will also involve the national hydro-meteorological agencies.

Assessing and exchanging data on the surface water quality for central part of the Kura River, where boundaries of the three South Caucasus countries “collide”, is probably one of the most significant tasks among the data sharing needs in the region, since large number of population, key industrial enterprises and water intensive agriculture fields are concentrated in this area. Therefore, access to the information on quality of water has vital importance for health, food safety and economic stability that, on the other hand, would be guarantee for poverty eradication and stability in the region.

South Caucasus Water Program (SCWP) will support joint water quality monitoring of the three national monitoring units throughout its final year of the project (October 2007 – September 2008). Altogether four seasonal water sampling exercises quarterly (collection and testing), as well as consequent Task Force regional meetings will be funded by the program to analyze the sampling results, discuss methodology used and set plans for further harmonization of water quality variables defined by the Task Force earlier (see the list of water quality variables in the Annex-A). The following 6 water quality stations are proposed to be involved in this exercise: Ayrum (Armenia) and Sadakhlo (Georgia) on the Debed River; Imiri (Georgia) and Red Bridge (Georgia) on the Khrami River; Kesalo (Georgia) and Shykhly (Azerbaijan) on the Kura River (see the Google Earth map with the indicated stations in the Annex B). It is proposed to test the following 12 parameters in the beginning of exercise: 1) COD/BOD, 2) Total Nitrogen, 3) Nitrate, 4) Ammonia/ammonium (NH3-NH4), 5) Total Phosphorus, 6) Organochlorine pesticides, 7) Copper, 8) Zink, 9) temperature, 10) pH, 11) oxygen and 12) conductivity. Then, depending on the variability of results these parameters may be changed, adjusted in numbers and contents.

According to the plan the Georgian group is supposed to split into two groups, one heading to Azerbaijan and another to Armenia, where at the bordering stations jointly with their colleagues from Armenia and Azerbaijan they will collect samples and travel back to Georgia. All four groups (two Georgian, Azeri and Armenian) will meet at the Imiri station to collect additional samples from the Khrami, exchange samples collected from the Debed and the Kura and travel back to their respective countries. Testing results will be freely available through the regional Water Cadastre Information System data exchange web-page being developed by the SCWP. In addition Basin Simulation Model, which is also being developed with the help of owned by national monitoring and hydro-meteorology agencies archive data and MIKE BASIN software purchased for them with the program funds, can be used for this purpose.

It is expected that this Task Force in cooperation with SCWP and other on-going and/or planned projects (OSCE/NATO, UNDP/EnvSec, EU/TACIS ) will develop more comprehensive mechanism for further joint monitoring as well as other activities (assessing minimal ecological flow, classification of river bodies, mapping of pollution hot-spots, developing watershed simulation models, flood protection and natural resources management plans, etc.). Ultimate goal of this cooperation should be establishing full scale international river basin commission (RBC) for Kura and Aras Rivers. It is hoped that Kura JTTF will serve as transitional RBC, eventually leading to the establishment of such commission in the South Caucasus. With this concept paper South Caucasus Water Program will look for a possibility to invite other donors in the region for cooperation over the proposed idea of Kura JTTF. After ending up of the program activities in Spring 2008 SCWP will start process of transferring all the program achievements, including ready to use database models, GIS based cadastre information system, hardware/software, studies and findings to national counterparts. And if by that time one can secure establishing regional unit, like Kura TTF able to claim ownership on the results achieved by different projects, sustainability over water resources management in the South Caucasus can be guaranteed.
ANNEX – A

List of chemical analytical and filed equipment methods* to be used by the South Caucasus countries

*The list was approved by all three countries during the May 2007 workshop in Tbilisi

Quality parameters / Methods / Armenia / Azerbaijan / Georgia / Check out!
Sampling / ISO 5667-1:1996;
ISO 5667-2: 1991;
ISO 5667-3:2003; ISO 5667-6 :1990 / ISO 5667 - 5:1991
ISO 5667 – 10:1992
ISO 5667 – 12:1995 / ISO5667-1;
ISO5667-6:1990
Conductivity,
1. Electrochemical method / Guidelines for the Chemical analysis of wastewater -77 (GCAW77)
(EPA 2520) :1998;
ISO 7888:1985 / ISO 7888:1985. / EPA2520-1998;
ISO 7888-1985;
HORIBA MULTI-PARAMETER zond
Salinity / (EPA 2520) :1998 / ok / EPA2520-1998
Colour in water / ISO 7887:1994 / ISO 7887:1994 / ISO 7887:1994
Hardness / ISO 6059:1984 / ISO 6059:1984 / ISO 6059:1984
Transparency
1. Nephelometric method / Standards will be submitted later
Total Suspended solids,
1. Gravimetric method / (GCAW77)
ISO 11923:1997;
EPA 2540D / ISO 11923:1997 / ISO 11923:1997
Dissolved oxygen
1. electrochemical method (amperometric/Clark electrode method) / (EPA 2540) :1998
Mobile equipment / ISO 5814:1990
Mobile equipment / Mobile equipment (HORIBA, YSI)
Biochemical oxygen demand / (GCAW77)
(EPA 5210 B,D,) :1998;
ISO 5815:1989; / ISO 5815:1989 / ISO 5815
pH value,
1.Potentiometric method / (GCAW77)
ISO 10523:1994;
(EPA 4500-H+):1998 / ISO 10523:1994 / PH Meter / Use of electrochemical probe/field equipment
Chloride
1. Argentometric method
2. Electrochemical method / (GCAW77)
(EPA 4500 B,D,-Cl-): 1998
ISO 9297:1989 / ISO 9297:1989 / EPA4500 B,D,-CI-1998 / Open for both methods
Nitrate,
1. Nitrate reduction method
2. electrochemical method
3. Spectrometric method / (GCAW77)
(EPA 4500-NO3-); 1998
ISO 7890-3:1988 / ISO 13395:1996 / ISO 7890-3 / Azerbaijan to change to the ISO 7890-3
Nitrite,
1. Spectrometric method
2. Fluorometric method / (GCAW77)
ISO 6777:1984
(EPA 4500-NO2-) :1998 / ISO 6777:1984 / ISO 6777:1984
Ammonia,
1. Spectrophotometric method,
2. electrochemical method (ammonia selective electrode) / (GCAW77)
ISO 7150-1:1984;
(EPA 4500 C,D,E-NH3) ;1998 / ok / ISO 7150-1 / Azerbaijan to use the same: ISO 7150-1
Total Nitrogen / ISO 7150-1 / ISO 7150-1 / ISO 7150-1 / Armenia will use the same
Phosphates,
1. Spectrometric method / (GCAW77)
ISO 6878:2004; (EPA 4500-P):1998 / ISO 6878:1998 / ISO 6878;2004
Phosphorus and phosphate
1. Spectrometric method / (GCAW77)
ISO 6878:2004
(EPA 4500-P):1998 / ISO 6878:1998 / ISO 6878;2004
Sulfate
1. Gravimetric method
2. Turbidimetric method / (GCAW77)
ISO 9280:1990
(EPA 4500 C,D,E,F – SO42-) : 1998 / ISO 9280:1990 / EPA4500 C,D,E,,F-SO42-1998 / Georgia to accept ISO 9280:1990 as well
Oils
1.Gas-Chromatographic method
2. Tinlier chromatographic method
3. Fluorometric method / (GCAW77)
ISO 9377-4
(EPA 5530 C,D, ) :1998
М 01-05-2002
МУК 4.1.1262-03
ПНД Ф 14.1:2:4.128-98
Свид-во No224.01.06.152/2002 / Guidelines for the Chemical analysis of wastewater -1977
ISO 9377-4 / ISO 9377-4 / Methods are equaly good
Magnesium / GD 52.04.186-89,
(EPA 3125) :1998 ;
ISO 17294-1:2004 / ISO 6059:1984 / ISO 7980 / Equipment dependent
Calcium / GD 52.04.186-89,
(EPA 3125) :1998 ;
ISO 17294-1:2004 / ISO 6058:1984 / ISO 7980 / Equipment dependent
Potassium / GD 52.04.186-89,
(EPA 3125) :1998 ;
ISO 17294-1:2004 / ISO
(ion selective method) / ISO 9964
(atomic absorption) / Equipment dependent
Sodium / GD 52.04.186-89,
(EPA 3125) :1998 ;
ISO 17294-1:2004 / ISO (ion selective method) / ISO 9964 / Equipment dependent
Iron / GD 52.04.186-89,
(EPA 3125) :1998 ;
ISO 17294-1:2004 / ISO (ion selective method) / ISO 6332 / Equipment dependent
Phenols / Not mesured / Spectrophotometric method - ISO / ISO 6439-90/RD118.02.012-88 / Armenia will look for Chromatograph to start measuring
Heavy metals Fe, Mn, Ni, Cu, Zn, Mo, Pb, / GD 52.04.186-89,
(EPA 3125) :1998 ;
ISO 17294-1:2004 -
ICPMS / Guidelines for the Chemical analysis of wastewater -1977
(Atomic absorption) / ISO 8288
ISO 5961 for Cd
(Atomic absorption) / Equipment dependent
Heavy Metals
Sample Preparation / ISO 15587-1;
ISO 15587
ISO 10566;
ISO 12020;
ISO 11885 / ISO 15587-1 / ISO 15587-1;
ISO 12020
Organochlorine pesticides
1. Gas-Chromatographic method / (GCAW77)
ISO 6468:1996, EPA 6630B, EPA 6630C / ISO 6468:1996 / ISO6468-1996
EPA 6630c

South Caucasus Water Program

ANNEX – B

Proposed Joint Water Quality Monitoring Stations in the Central Kura