AMU DARYA - Key Persons
Mr. Karimov is an Agricultural Engineer and PhD Student at Texas A&M University. His research is mainly on implementation of Water Rights Analysis Model (WRAP) which is a river basin/reservoir systems simulation model that was developed and have been implemented by Texas A&M University and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality as part of the Water Availability Modeling System to use, allocate and regulate stream flows in 23 River Basins of Texas. His expertise include but not limited to design and implementation of Supervisory Control And Data Acquisitions System (SCADA), water measurement structures and modernization of irrigation districts to improve water delivery efficiencies. His PhD research is mainly focused on water allocation and water rights in the Amudarya River Basin. Mr. Karimov is kind to become a member to get involved in various issues pertaining to water allocation and water rights in the Basin as well as to learn from colleagues and members more about on-going projects and research. In addition, to be up to date on any progress towards the improvement of water management in the Basin
Dominic Stucker is a climate and water researcher, as well as a leadership development specialist. Dominic, with ADBN members Jusipbek Kazbekov, Murat Yakubov, and Kai Wegerich of IWMI, published a featured article entitled "Climate Change in a Small Transboundary Tributary of the Syr Darya Calls for Effective Cooperation and Adaptation" in a special Mountain Research and Development Journal issue on Central Asia (2012).
Job Titles:
- Senior Fellow With EastWest Institute
Dr. Najam Abbas is a Senior Fellow with EastWest Institute focusing on Central and South Asia. He analyzes media and human development issues in the South and Central Asian context. In 1998, he completed his PhD from Tajik National University, based on his post-graduate research on Kazakhstan's Post-Independence Press at the Kazakh State University in Almaty (1994-97). He has worked for the University of Central Asia during 1999-2002. Earlier, Dr. Abbas was part of the Crisis and Conflict Analysis Team at the Institute for Strategic Studies, Islamabad analyzing both the early roots and later implications of the Afghan crisis (1986 to 1991). Dr. Abbas appears regularly on BBC's South and Central Asian services as well as on Aljazeera Arabic and English news channels. Dr. Abbas is fluent in Russian, and is conversant in Arabic and Persian/Tajik languages.
Dr.-Ing. Oliver Olsson has specialized in the area of Integrated Water Resources Management in water deficient regions and has experience in South America and Central Asia, since 6years. His special focus is on water quality modelling, reservoir and multiple-reservoir system operations and their interactions with the river water quality, environmental risk assessment and sustainable water management strategies. Currently, he is the main responsible researcher of the project ZAR- Impact of transition processes on environmental risk assessment and risk management strategies in a Central Asian transboundary basin (Zarafshan) funded by the Volkswagenfoundation and he was the project manager and main responsible researcher of the EU INCO-Jayhun project (516761): Interstate Water Resource Risk Management: Towards A Sustainable Future for the Aral Basin.
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Fellow for European Foreign
Eva Gross is a Senior Research Fellow for European Foreign and Security Policy at Institute of European Studies, Vrije Universiteit Brussel. At the IES, she heads the research cluster 'EU foreign and security policy'. Her current research projects include transatlantic cooperation in post-conflict reconstruction; the EU's contribution to security sector reform in Afghanistan; the ongoing development of European crisis management policies; and the EU's engagement with the emerging powers. Other research interests include the role of the EU as a global actor, the Europeanization of national foreign and security policy, transatlantic relations, and EU conflict prevention and crisis management policies, particularly towards the Western Balkans and Afghanistan. Eva Gross holds a PhD from the London School of Economics, and has been a Visiting Fellow at the EU Institute for Security Studies (2008), the Center for European Policy Studies/CEPS (2006) and CERI Sciences Po (2005). In 2005/06 Eva Gross was a fellow of the European Foreign and Security Policy Studies Program of the VolkswagenStiftung, Germany, the Compagnia di San Paolo, Turin and the Rijksbanken Jubilaeumsfond, Stockholm.
Dr. Allouche is currently working as a Research Fellow in water supply and sanitation at the Institute of Development Studies. He previously worked at the University of Oxford, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology - MIT, at ETH Lausanne where he was the director of the Water Institutions and Management Competence Centre, at the Swiss Graduate Institute of Public Administration, and at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva. His fields of interests are public private partnerships, the governance and regulation of water supply and sanitation systems, access to water and sanitation and pro-poor regulation, water security, and transboundary water conflicts. Regions where he worked are Central and South Asia, Middle East, North Africa, and Sub Saharan Africa.
Joelle Rizk has coordinated the activities of the Amu Darya Basin Network in 2011-2013. She has worked with the United Nations Development Program on Transboundary Water Management and Human Development in Afghanistan and is currently working on issues of sustainable development, resources nexus and conflict prevention in natural resources management. Her main areas of interest are related to Transboundary Cooperation, Water and Energy Nexus and Environmental Conservation.
Joop de Schutter is a senior consultant and applied research manager in the field of policy analysis for integrated water resources management and integrated coastal zone management with extended international experience in implementation of projects in the water and environment sector. He has worked over 20 years in many different countries in Europe, South East Asia, Central Asia and Africa. His educational background is in project management, civil engineering, coastal zone management and integrated water resources management. Sectors covered during his career have been natural resources planning and rural development, integrated water resources management, integrated coastal zone management, coastal and inland fisheries, environmental impact assessment, sustainable development planning and institutional development. Since 1996 he has been involved in various, World Bank and other major donor funded, projects of the Aral Sea Program in Central Asia. These included the Aral Sea Wetlands Restoration Project, the Sudoche Wetlands Restoration Project, the Aral Sea Basin Management Model Project and special research programs for "integrated water resources management under conditions of scarcity" with funding from the NATO Science for Peace program. He has been the general manager of Resource Analysis, a policy analysis for water and environment consultancy with offices in Delft, the Netherlands and Antwerp, Belgium until 2003. From then on he has joined UNESCO-IHE first as a head of the water engineering department and as the UNESCO-IHE Business Director since 2007.
Job Titles:
- Senior Researcher at FRIDE
Jos Boonstra is a senior researcher at FRIDE. His research mainly focuses on democracy in Central Asia. He is currently coordinating the EU-Central Asia Monoitoring (EUCAM) project, a joint initiative of FRIDE and CEPS. His recent publications include Into EurAsia: Monitoring the EU's Central Asia Strategy and "The EU, Central Asia and Security Sector Reform".
Mariya Pak is a PhD fellow at Oregon State University and a Research Associate at International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
Mariya's previous training is in international relations (B.S. from Tashkent State University of Oriental Studies, 2009) and water policy (M.S. from Oregon State University, 2011). Before undertaking her M.S. she was employed as a research assistant by ZEF/UNESCO Project in her homecoutry Uzbekistan (2004-2008). At the present moment she is a research associate working with Central Asian international agreements on water resources with International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
Job Titles:
- Coordinator
- Coordinator of South Asia Network
Mr. Himanshu THakkar is working as coordinator of South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP) which is an informal network of organizations and individuals working on issues related with water sector with special focus on issues associated with large dams, mostly in India, but including South Asia regional issues. SANDRP's broad objective is to work on these issues so that democracy, people and environmenta get due place.
Being a coordinator Mr. Thakkar believes that transboundary water issues in South Asia and Central Asia can have lessons for each other, since climate change will affect them all. There are countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan which are common to two regions whose issues should be studied and approached carefully.
Mr. Mohammad Qaasim is Project Manager for AIT-MoHE , Afghanistan Partnership Project and a farmer faculty member at civil and Industrial Engineering department, faculty of engineering Balkh University. He earned his Master degree from Structural Engineering field of study, School of Engineering and Technology from Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand in 2008. Mohammad Qaasim is the founder of faculty of Engineering and academic advisor of Aria Institute of Higher Education in Northern Afghanistan. He is working as deputy project coordinator for DelPHE project and member of Partner Academic Learning (PAL) project. He has worked as consultant for many international and UN organizations such as UN-Habitat, UHFAO in Northern Afghanistan. Mr. Qaasim received his Bachelor of Engineering degree from Civil and Industrial Engineering department, Faculty of Engineering from Balkh University in 1995. He speaks Dari, Pashtu, Uzbeki and English languages.
Mr. Ranjit Lamech is an Energy Sector Manager working for World Bank and specialized on energy and water issues with focus on Europe and Central Asia Region. He is dealing with a number of complex energy projects in the Amu Darya Basin. He is kind to join the ADBN being informed from his colleagues and ready to participate and provide World Bank perspectives on energy-water issues in the Central Asia Region.
Mr. Stephen Hodgson is a Brussels based environmental lawyer who specialises in water law. His recent publications include "Strategic Water Resources in Central Asia: in search of a new international legal order" (link to document).
Prior working in South East Asia Department of Asian Development Bank, Mr. Thomas Panella worked as a Senior Water Resources Management Specialist for the ADB‘s Central and West Asia Department, Agriculture, Environment, and Natural Resources Division. His work included irrigation and integrated water resources management, and his countries of focus included Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan with prior work in India, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka. Prior to ADB, he worked in the Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development Department at the World Bank. He was a charter officer of the California Urban Water Conservation Council and served as its convener in 1997. He has conducted research and consulted for California water and energy utilities, UN agencies, and other academic, private, and public organizations. His research interests include irrigation governance and institutional reform; environmental flows; water rights; and river basin management. He received a PhD and MPP in Public Policy from the University of California at Berkeley and received an MS from the Energy and Resources Group at Berkeley with an emphasis on water resources.
Mr. Viktor Novikov has conducted field and desk assessment on environment and security issues in the Amu Darya basin. He also facilitated environmental cooperation dialogue between Afghanistan and Tajikistan. In addition, Mr. Novikov has extensive experience in climate change-water- glaciers research.
Ms. Dinara Ziganshina earned her law degree from Tashkent State Institute of Law, and Master of Laws degree in Environmental and Natural Resources Law Program at the University of Oregon School of Law. Currently, Dinara is a PhD student at the UNESCO Centre for Water Law, Policy and Science. Her research focuses on public international law as applied to transboundary waters in Central Asia and its effectiveness. Next to her studies, Dinara serves as a legal advisor for the Scientific Information Center of the Interstate Commission for Water Coordination in Central Asia.
Job Titles:
- Coordinator for Central Asia
Natalia Alexeeva is a Water Programme Coordinator for Central Asia in UNDP Almaty office. She is responsible for coordination of the UNDP-EC Project "Promoting Integrated Water Resources Management and Transboundary Dialogue in Central Asia". In addition, Natalia is doing a PhD on Environmental Security and Sustainable Development. Her previous experience includes environmental policy and management, water management, transboundary waters, public participation, project management, coordination.
Ryota Saito is a graduate student on international relations of Tsukuba University, Japan and his reseacrh area is focused on international relationship over water distributing and his academic speciality is interstate water management in Central Asia.
Mr. Ahmadzai participated through a conference call in a conference under the title of improving regional cooperation on water between Afghanistan and its neighbors organized by East West Institute. He was also a member of Water Security Working Group of Regional Network of Strategic Studies Centers (RNSSC), the Near East and South Asia (NESA) Center, National Defense University (NDU), United States.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Geography at the University of Nottingham
Sarah O'Hara is a professor of geography at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom. Her research includes studies on dust and health in the Aral Sea Basin, and water management strategies in the former Soviet Republics of Central Asia
Prof. Dukhovny is a Director of SIC ICWC. After completion of education in Ukraine Water institute in 1956 with diplom civil engineer on the master level with "diplom of excellence" he selected as place of work Central Asia. In the past, he was a chief engineer of Hunger Steppe development (350 thousand ha of new irrigated lands), a director of construction unit for Karakum canal, a chief engineer and first deputy Chairman of Central Asia Board for irrigation and development of new lands. From 1973 up to 1993 he served as director of Central Asian scientific research institute SANIIRI. Since independence, he has become one of the active organizers of water partnerships, including the Interstate Coordination Water Commission, the International Fund for Aral Sea Saving, and Global Water Partnership of Central Asia and Caucasus. Professor Dukhovny actively promotes the regional interests in the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage, where he is a Honorary Vice-President; in the World Water Council and in the International Water Resources Association, where he was elected as a member of the board. Many water specialists from Central Asian countries were involved in implementation of advanced water resources management methods owing to his activity as an advisor and manager of a large number of the regional projects - "IWRM-Fergana", "The Central Asia Regional Water Information Base", "Automation of structures in the Fergana Valley", as well as the training center of ICWC. Professor Dukhovny V.A. published more than 350 articles, 22 monographs, latest "Water in Central Asia: past, present and future", 2011 by "Taylor and Fransis, 420 pages. He prepared 18 PhD students on the water management, advance irrigated agriculture, perspective planning of water development. He worked in Central Asia, but also as consultant in India, Nicaragua, Syria, Yemen and other states.