Water management in a state-centered environment : water governance analysis of Uzbekistan

In the early 1990s the countries of Central Asia started their transformation to a market economy. Uzbekistan is in the throes of change and facing a huge restructuring task and a need to improve governance. Decades of central bureaucratic allocation of natural resources left national bureaucrats with little capacity to formulate their own sustainable policies. Lack of inclusive, long term oriented policies and mechanisms in management of common pool resources brought catastrophic results in the past. The study reveals that implanting a top-down quota policy has positive effects on a larger public. However it may become a threat to the long term environmental sustainability. [authors abstract]