People’s livelihoods in the Fergana region closely depends on integrated water management systems. Tinchlik community is no exception. Household plots and small farms provide most of the household income from sales in local and regional markets, and make a major contribution to Tinchlik’s families’ nutrition requirements.

Since 2005 the EU-UNDP Enhancement of Living Standards (ELS) programme in the Fergana Valley has worked systematically to expanding its impact by networking with other development partners, notably in the UN family. Perseverance has paid off and recently, the ELS and the World Bank Fergana Valley Water Resource Management Project (FWRMP) have initiated a scheme that clearly highlights the potential for mutual synergy. Both projects are now working together to improve drainage and irrigation systems, water resources management, and agricultural techniques.

The ELS project with its five year experience of community development and its pool of community mobilizers and district development resource centres located and supported by the local Mahalla Committees is well positioned to help enlarge the pool of beneficiaries of the FWRMP and help spread its messages further into the community.  The FWRMP concentrates on rehabilitation of irrigation and drainage infrastructure, together with institutional strengthening and capacity building of government water management organistations and Water User Associations (WUA), plus training in improved agricultural management. These activities tend to benefit large famers, whereas the ELS supports small farmers and households.

In this context, the ELS project can work in synergy with the FWRMP to ensure that the benefits of improved irrigation and drainage are accrued not only by large scale farmers, but through the WUAs, also by small dekhan farmers and communities as a whole. By benefiting a larger part of the population, this approach can contribute to improved sustainability and greater social impact of the FWRMP.

 The EU, World Bank and UNDP are piloting an approach where the benefits of large infrastructures - better water and land conditions are extended to small farmers and household, which make up 96% of households with small plots of land. “This three-way collaboration emphasizes that development work is not just about rehabilitation of physical infrastructure but very much about improving the livelihoods and living conditions of all people in the Fergana Valley” – said Robert Davey, team leader of the project management consultants for the FWRMP. 


For more information on:
The Fergana Valley Water Resource Management project see: http://www-wds.worldbank.org