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From Mountains to Cities: Rivers That Unite Central Asia
This video, winner of the Audience Choice Award at the Ethos Film Festival, was created by SAN'ATCORE team as part of a CAWEP-sponsored contest for young videographers.
Changing Climate Through the Lens of Young Talents
What does a generation living through climate change feel? Discover it in this short film — one of the top three works in a competition organized by the Central Asia Water and Energy Program. Created by a young team from Tajikistan, it tells a sincere story about water, nature, and hope for change.
The Central Asia Water & Energy Program: Helping Advance a More Resilient
Entering its fourth phase of efforts, the Central Asia Water & Energy Program (CAWEP) is a partnership between the World Bank, the European Union, Switzerland and the United Kingdom that works to improve the enabling environment for regional cooperation on water and energy security across Central Asia.
Leveraging the water-energy nexus to tackle climate challenges in Central Asia
Getting the balance right at the water-energy nexus is already a challenge, and the climate crisis is only expected to exacerbate this, especially in Central Asia.
Central Asia Water and Energy Data Portal
Welcome to the Central Asia Water and Energy Data Portal! Access and visualize multi-sectoral spacial and temporal data from a range of national and international institutions by drawing upon their map and data services; and to learn more about CAWEP funded projects in the region.
Central Asian Journal of Water Research (CAJWR)
The Central Asian Journal of Water Research (CAJWR) is a bi-lingual, peer-reviewed, open-access, multidisciplinary e-journal dedicated to all aspects of Water Research in the region of Central Asia. The journal is created with support from CAWEP and WBG experts.
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The Central Asia region is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, particularly those related to water scarcity, land degradation and natural disasters (droughts, floods, mudslides). With a growing economy and population, Central Asian countries are increasingly facing competition for water, which is crucial for agriculture absorbing ninety percent of freshwater withdrawals. The transboundary links are particularly important in the region's south, where most river runoff originates in the highlands of Tajikistan and the Kyrgyz Republic, while the bulk of water withdrawals occur in irrigated plains of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and southern Kazakhstan.
The need for cooperation on energy and water management is particularly evident in irrigation with its high energy consumption for pumping irrigation water during the vegetation season. At the same time, the rich hydropower resources of upstream countries (Tajikistan, Kyrgyz Republic) are critical for decarbonization, while water is key for cooling thermal power stations in the fossil fuel rich countries (Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan).
While each state has sovereignty over the national water endowment, in practice, implementation of water flow volumes and patterns rely on loosely defined Soviet-era regional agreements. Seasonal variations affect welfare and development, as even relatively small shortfalls can have major impacts on irrigated agricultural production, fisheries, and fisher/farmer incomes.
Optimizing reservoir releases for energy production could bring significant economic benefits, including in irrigation but proper compensation mechanisms trusted by all countries are yet to be developed. Improved technical management capacity at the regional and national level and more open sharing of data and information at the regional level could help to address these trade-offs.
Forming Partnerships
The Central Asia Water & Energy Program (CAWEP) is a partnership between the World Bank, the European Union, Switzerland (through SECO) and the United Kingdom that works to improve the enabling environment for regional cooperation on water and energy security in Central Asia under a changing climate. It supports the development of data-driven regional narratives and innovative analytics, builds institutional capacity, fosters investments, and provides a platform for high-level political and technical discourse on water, energy, and climate cooperation in Central Asia.
The Program’s objective is to promote regional cooperation for more resilient and better integrated water and energy management under a changing climate. CAWEP intends to (i) tackle higher-level and more ambitious regional goals on policy dialogue and development of regional institutions, (ii) leverage and coordinate approaches to deliver outcomes on joint water-energy management rather than separate water and energy work, and (iii) integrate climate change as an overarching theme, including both adaptation and mitigation responses in water-energy management.
CAWEP works with and supports governments, national and regional organizations, civil society organizations, and development partners, including other international financial institutions. The Program is anchored in partnerships with governments to ensure that program activities address national priorities. CAWEP cooperates with other development and financing partners to enhance the impact in meeting its objectives and to leverage investments by others.
PUBLICATIONS
Annual Progress Reports
- Phase 4 Annual Report 2025
- Progress Report October 2023 – June 2024
- Progress Report 2022 and 2023
- Progress Report 2021
- Progress Report 2020
- Progress Report 2019
- Progress Report 2018
- Progress Report 2017
- Progress Report 2016
- Progress Report 2015
- Progress Report 2014
- Progress Report 2013
- Progress Report 2012
Technical Papers
Phase 4
- Pathways to Climate-Smart Agriculture in Uzbekistan
- Best Practices in Digitalization in the Water Sector of Central Asia
- Uzbekistan Third Agriculture Public Expenditure Review
- Kyrgyz Republic Country Climate and Development Report
- Tajikistan Country Climate and Development Report
Phase 3
- Uzbekistan Country Climate and Development Report
- Kazakhstan Country Climate and Development Report
- Valuing Green Infrastructure: A Case Study of the Vakhsh River Basin, Tajikistan
- Good Practice Note on Dam Safety (set of notes, Russian)
- Technical Notes on Dam Safety (set of notes, Russian)
- Landscape Restoration Opportunities in the Naryn River Basin, the Kyrgyz Republic : Restoration Opportunities Assessment Methodology (ROAM) Report
- Strengthening Hydromet and Multi-hazard Early Warning Services in Uzbekistan: A Road Map
- ICON-In-the-Cloud (ICONIC): Piloting Numerical Weather Prediction on Commercial Cloud Services for Central Asia
- Assessment of Kazakhstan’s Capacity to Monitor, Forecast, Project, and Warn on Climate‐Related Hazards
- Country Hydromet Diagnostic: Kyrgyzhydromet Peer Review Report
- Multilanguage Glossary of Water Sector Terms (in Russian)
- Unified Discipline Syllabi (UDS) packages of basic professional courses for the BA majors "Hydro amelioration" and "Water engineering" in universities of the Central Asian countries (in Russian)
- Review of Water-Related Academic and Research Capacity in Central Asian Countries
- Stocktaking Review and Mapping of Water-Related Knowledge and Capacity Building Initiatives by International Partners in Central Asian Countries
- Financing Climate Change Adaptation in Transboundary Basins: Preparing Bankable Projects
Phase 2
- Fueling Kyrgyzstan’s Transition to Clean Household Heating Solutions
- Stuck in Transition: Reform Experiences and Challenges Ahead in the Kazakhstan Power Sector
- Enhancing Regional Power Trade in Central Asia
- The Costs of Irrigation Inefficiency in Tajikistan
- Overviews of Climate Change Activities in Central Asia (series)
- Keeping Warm: Urban Heating Options (series: Kyrgyz Republic & Tajikistan)
- Load Dispatch and System Operation Study in Central Asian Power System
- Tajikistan's Winter Energy Crisis: Electricity Supply and Demand Alternatives
- Turn Down the Heat: Confronting the New Climate Normal: The Climate Challenge for Central Asia
- Strengthening Analysis for Integrated Water Resources Management in Central Asia
- Strengthening Analysis for Integrated Water Resources Management in Central Asia: Annexes
- Social Impact Analysis of Water Supply and Sanitation Services in Central Asia: The Case of Uzbekistan
- Assessment of the Role of Glaciers in Stream Flow from the Pamir and Tien Shan Mountains
Program Briefs
NEWSLETTER
The CAWEP newsletter is a quarterly bulletin that highlights the news and activities implemented under the program.
- April-June 2026
- January-March 2026
- October-December 2025
- July-September 2025
- April-June 2025
- May 2025 – Special Edition
- January-March 2025
- October-December 2024
- July-September 2024
- January-June 2024
- April-June 2023
- January-March 2023
- October-December 2022
- July-September 2022
- April–June 2022
- January-March 2022
- October-December 2021