Evaluating the Role of Governance on Drinking Water and Sanitation Management: the Case of Fergana Valley in Uzbekistan

Abstract

Uzbekistan is in the first place by the population in Central Asia and the Fergana Valley is the most populated region in Uzbekistan, almost 30% of all population live there. This proposed thesis aims to understand self-governance institutions and their influence on water governance at the local level in Fergana Valley. After the collapse of the USSR, the power of Moscow shifted to capitals of Central Asian countries, as a consequence there was no anymore facilitator or moderator for solving the problems such as water and sanitation in rural areas, assets were transferred under the jurisdictions of a collective farms, but the problem that these institutions had no capacity to solve drinking water and sanitation issues in the rural areas. Moreover, in this period even well-equipped water networks started to collapse because of the lack of sustainability, which became the reason for the development of the water-borne diseases and shortage of water which is the potential threat for public health. The attempts of the state to rehabilitated drinking water governance in rural areas was limited with attention to the technical part, without involving the population as a direct beneficiary into the decision making processes, thus social part and management of the water-governance in rural areas were suffering because of lack of sustainability and development. The main methodology of the research was a survey among the rural population and non-participatory observation of the rural water supply conditions along with the analysis of water governance and legal regulations in Uzbekistan. Two types of villages were chosen as an object of the research – village with centralised water governance where water provision is under the responsibility of the state-owned organization and village with decentralised water governance where water provision is organised by the self-governance institution in the form of NGO. The main purpose of the survey was to 4 understand the current position of the population regarding water supply and sanitation in their villages under different governance strategies centralised and decentralised. The results of the research work showed that the population lacks trust in their self-governance institutions as a legal organization, but at the same time people believe that changes are possible. Such factors as gender age and occupation of the people play a role in the decision making processes and shape the common opinion about water governance and self-governance institutions in rural areas. Analysis has shown that there are not enough legal instruments for the development of the self-governance institutions, low capacity of the rural population and lack of motivation for development of the state-owned organization which is monopolist in drinking water provision and management. Thus, the self-governance institution in the Fergana Valley influence the water governance through the participation of the population, but the self-governance institution as a legal organization which is state organization has a weak position for decision making and hardly influence if the water and sanitation services under the control of government organization.