Area:  total: 447,400 sq km  land: 425,400 sq km Coastline: 0 km  Uzbekistan includes the southern portion of the Aral Sea with a 420 km shoreline   Population: 24,102,473 (July 1999 est.) Source: CIA Worldfact Book (2000)

Uzbekistan   Basic Data Contacts CSD Data Other Links Other Data Country Contacts Government of Uzbekistan   (Source:  CIA World Factbook 1999)     OCEANS AND COASTAL AREAS Many thanks to the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development, the source of the following information. The information was taken from the Uzbekistan's submission to the 5th Session of the Commission on Sustainable Development (last update: April 1997). For further information on the Uzbekistan's social and economic factors, natural resources, and institutional structures see the United Nations System-Wide Web Site on National Implementation of the Rio Commitments National Information for Uzbekistan at:   http://www.un.org/esa/agenda21/natlinfo/countr/uzbek/index.htm   An international conference on the Aral Sea crisis, convened by the United Nations in Nukus in 1995, adopted a decision to draft an international convention on the sustainable development of the Aral Sea Basin and created the Regional Commission on Sustainable Development.  Decisions on matters connected with the use of the water resources of the transboundary rivers of the Aral Sea Basin are taken at the inter-State level. For this purpose, an inter-State water management coordination commission has been set up and is in operation. At the ministerial level, it is made up of representatives from the five States of the Aral Sea Basin: Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Their decisions on limiting the use of the rivers' waters are binding on all States. They also make decisions on the release of water into the river deltas and the Aral Sea. The executive organs of this commission are the "Amy Darya" and "Syr Darya" Basin Water Management Associations.  The executive agencies at the national level are the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, the State Environmental Protection Committee (monitoring functions), the Ministry of Macroeconomics and Statistics (calculation of the water use balance and accounting), and the Principal Hydrometeorological Office (monitoring of water quality at source). The use of water resources is regulated by the Water and Water Use Act.  Central Asia contains the enclosed Aral Sea, the southern and south-western parts of which are located in the territory of Uzbekistan. The volume of the Aral Sea is determined by the flows of the transboundary rivers Amy Darya and Syr Darya. As a result of heavy use of the rivers for economic purposes (primarily farm irrigation) from the 1960s their flow gradually declined, ceasing entirely by the end of the 1980s. As a result, the volume of the Aral Sea was reduced by a factor of four, its level fell by 15 metres, and its surface area shrank by a factor of two. The area of dried-up sea bed totals 33,400 km2. Consequently, the Aral Sea has lost its importance for fisheries, recreation, and transport.  Since the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), the problems of the Aral Sea Basin have been tackled on a regional and international basis. In 1993, the Heads of State of the countries of Central Asia decided to establish the International Fund to Save the Aral Sea and an inter-State council on the problems of the Aral Sea Basin, with the corresponding executive agencies. In view of the existing duplication of functions, the Heads of State decided, at their meeting in Almaty in February 1997, to reorganize the management structure and establish in Tashkent a single Executive Board of the International Fund. The Fund is headed by one of the presidents of the States of Central Asia elected for a two-year term. The Executive Board has two representatives from each member State. An agreement has been adopted on the formation and use of the Fund's resources. A meeting of Heads of State in Nukus in 1994 approved the concept of saving the Aral Sea and a programme of concrete actions for the next five years, under which regional and international cooperation is being organized.  In conjunction with international organizations (United Nations, World Bank, etc.), cooperation has been organized in recent years at the international and regional levels in order to preserve the Aral Sea as a natural feature. Restoration of the Aral Sea will require a radically altered economic structure with a shift towards sectors which are not water-intensive and the total exclusion of farm irrigation. In view of the limited economic possibilities for the countries of the region, such changes seem unlikely in the very near future. However, the work which is now being carried out on the rational use of water resources is already producing results, and in recent years the flow of the rivers into the deltas and the Sea itself has reached 15-20 m³, which has slowed the fall in its level.      Other Links Aral Sea link UNDP-Aral Sea Basin Capacity Development Project   Other Data n.a.