Water resources and multilateral security organisations in Central Asia

At present, Central Asia faces serious conflicts over water management, most of them of a transnational nature: humanitarian crises, droughts, floods, pollution, ethnic problems, nepotism and corruption in the allocation of water resources, etc. In July 2010 the United Nations declared access to water and sanitation to be a human right, with the aim of resolving or mitigating such conflicts. In this region, there are several multilateral security organizations which for over two decades have been developing strategies to address the various conflicts and threats that plague this environment. Given the severity of current water-related conflicts, one may wonder about the role of these organizations and whether they have included in their agenda the human right to water and sanitation, in order to solve the problems related to the management of water resources and to ensure the entire population has access to the most basic of all human rights: the right to water.

Key words: water, water resources, Central Asia, human rights

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