Lessons on cooperation building to manage water conflicts in the Aral Sea Basin; Technical documents in hydrology: pc-cp series; Vol.: 11; 2003

3. CONCLUSION 
The Aral Sea Basin is unique. Here the world can see the combined effects of specific 
historical and national characteristics, past and present influences, particular political 
and economic factors, and varying natural conditions. With all these aspects, it can be 
seen most importantly as an environment where five countries are trying to 
collaborate over water. This is one of the reasons why the Aral Sea Basin was selected 
for PCCP Program as a case study. The other reasons are as follows:
● 
the advantages and strengths conferred by the past ten years of regional 
collaboration 
● 
a clear understanding of potential points of conflict in the water sector can be 
drawn from the lessons of experience 
● a vision of future courses of action in the form of recommendations on 
strengthening of collaboration. 
In addition, one principal reason for selecting the Aral Sea Basin as a case study for 
the PCCP program was the difference in understanding of the term “conflict” in local 
and western practice. 
In local usage the word “conflict” has a different meaning from that in western 
understanding. We use the word “conflict” only in a situation which can be assessed 
as a threshold of real struggle, real destruction, or a deviation from agreed or routine 
patterns of actions, activity, or decisions that is unacceptable to other parties 
concerned and has caused real damage or harm to other participants in the process. 
In the western concept “conflict” implies a “clash of interests.” Such an 
understanding is not appropriate for water practice. Anyone who in the real world is 
involved in water operation and management, dealing with problems that are well 
known to water specialists, has to decide every day, sometimes many time in a single 
day, how to combine the interests of many water users located on one canal, one 
system, one river and so on. Changes in the hydrological situation, especially in 
conditions of water scarcity, require water specialists to deal with them immediately, 
reallocating water so as to cause the minimum constraint while being equitable and 
reasonable to each stakeholder in water allocation. None of us assessed such 
situations as conflicts; it is routine work, in which each water operator has to take the 
right decisions. In such work conflicts in water management within the Aral Sea Basin 
can be seen as disagreements of interests, ideas, and principles, which can harm 
attempts to provide regular satisfaction of water requirement users and to protect 
nature. 
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