EUROSTAT brings together representatives of 13 countries to discuss water statistics in Almaty

Representatives of the national statistical institutes and the bodies responsible for water management of Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan attend the seminar, as well as representatives from a number of international and regional organizations, such as UN-ECE, CAREC, EEA, and FAO, international experts and the EU Delegation to Kazakhstan, the press service of the EU Delegation to Kazakhstan said.

Environment and water issues are among the top priorities agreed in the EU Strategy Papers for cooperation with the Eastern European and Central Asian region. Good management of water resources is crucial for the region and for policy makers and their management of water reliable information on water quantities, as well as on water quality is necessary.

The objective of this seminar is to look at some of the key questions that need to be asked concerning water quantities - how much water is available; who uses the water, and for what; what happens to the waste water that is generated? - and how to produce good quality data to help answer these questions? 

The seminar is aimed at staff of national statistical institutes and water authorities, to assist them in the development of robust water statistics for their country. The seminar also provides an opportunity for the users and the producers of water statistics to discuss data needs, and methods of collecting and using the data. The last half-day of the seminar will be dedicated to cooperation between the EU and Central Asian countries in the field of environment and water in the framework of the meeting of the EU-CA Working Group on Environmental Governance and Climate Changes. Conclusions of Rio +20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development, held in Rio de Janeiro will be also discussed during the seminar.