Tajikistan mountain villages supported in coping with climate change

26.02.2014

Residents of Midenshor Village in the remote western Pamir Mountains of  Tajikistan will soon have access to drinking water thanks to the Alliance of Central Asian Mountain Communities (AGOCA), a Mountain Partnership member. AGOCA, supported by the Mountain Partnership  Hub at the University of  Central Asia, is working with the  local Water User Association on implementing a project that will run until May 2014. It is funded by the  Christensen Fund, a Californian organization  very active in Central Asian mountain countries.
AGOCA was established in 2003 with the aim of supporting ‘bottom-up’ involvement of populations and a better representation of village matters at the national and regional levels. At present, 45 mountain communities from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan are members.
An 800-meter pipeline will transport water  from the Chashma mountain spring  to 211 households in the village. As part of the project work on community mobilization and awareness raising, a series of meetings have been held with village members, some of which focused  on coping with changing climate and adaptation strategies.  The meetings were  organized to share information about the project and  explain the importance of  using water resources effectively. Village members,  local decision-makers, village authorities and women activists attended the meetings.

According to Shahboz Miralibekov, head of AGOCA -Tajikistan, the project will lead to effective partnering of all relevant stakeholders at the community level, village based NGOs, local government authorities - for solving the daunting problem of water supply for the villagers. .