Water Stories
The Federal Foreign Office’s main implementation
partners are the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), the German Research
Centre for Geosciences as a coordinator of the regional
research network Central Asian Water (CAWa) and the
German-Kazakh University in Almaty.
Since 2012, a new dimension has complemented the
activities of the Berlin Process: the project “De-polemicizing national discourses through regional cooperation of journalists” is being run by n-ost, the German
Network for Reporting on Eastern Europe, and aims to
raise awareness about water problems. Sometimes the
perspectives of other riparian states are not reflected in
Central Asian media outlets, although an understanding
of the interests and needs of neighbouring countries is
pivotal. In addition, environmental issues as such are often underrepresented in the media.
n-ost brought together journalists from all five Central Asian countries and Afghanistan for joint workshops and analysis, resulting in the articles published
here. This is an important component of our activities.
The participants of this project crossed boundaries just
like water crosses boundaries. They learned to see “their”
river through their neighbours’ eyes. They will bring
these new perspectives into their future reports for the
media of their home countries, thereby spreading their
experience.
I thank all the participants and the organizers at n-ost
for their engagement. This compilation of articles presents the result of the project, a collection of different and
maybe sometimes challenging opinions and assessments
of the water situation in Central Asia. We hope that it
will stimulate a constructive discussion among readers
in Central Asia as well as in Europe.
Dr Hinrich Thölken
Head of Division
International Climate and Environmental Policy
Sustainable Economy
Federal Foreign Office
Foreword