Over the course of the last 35 years the population of Central Asia has witnessed the disappearance of one of the world's largest bodies of water, the Aral Sea, and the associated profound economic crisis that has encompassed not only the Aral Sea districts, but the entire region.

The insufficiently considered policy for the use of natural resources, and the excessive water consumption for irrigation needs from the Syr Darya and Amu Darya rivers, led to unprecedented impact on the ecologies of many states.

An obvious sign of the disappearance of the Aral Sea is that to this date the level of the Aral has decreased more than 17 m (from the 53 m mark to the 35.8 m mark above sea level), and its salinity has tripled, reaching 41 g/l by 1996. As a result the ecological system was ruined. More than 20 types of flora and fauna disappeared. The dried up sea bottom gave rise to salt and dust storms. The continental nature of the climate of areas adjacent to the sea increased, depth of underground waters changed, and desertification processes began to develop.

To stop the crisis, the Central Asian states together with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and the UN and World Bank Environment Program, developed an Action Program to solve the problems of the Aral Sea Basin. This Program was adopted by the heads of the Central Asian states in Nukus on 11 January 1994. It is aimed at creating and carrying out a comprehensive system of measures and mechanisms that help improve the effectiveness of the use of land and water resources, and improve the ecological conditions of natural resources use and the social and economic conditions of the lives of the population of the Aral Sea Basin.

One of the aims of the program is to develop measures for the comprehensive use of land and water resources, and for improving the ecological situation in the runoff formation zones (Program 6).

Implementation of the 'Program of Specific Actions for the Aral Sea Basin' requires a special approach to the participation of various strata of the population and community, both in the planning stage and during implementation.

A thorough assessment of the causes of the Aral crisis would indicate that among the other causes was failure to take into account the public opinion of the region's population in the post-Soviet period in the development and carrying out of large projects for opening up large tracts and developing cotton-growing, rice-growing, etc. The development of irrigation in the Aral Sea Basin was accompanied by major investments, mainly in all-union interests and to the detriment of the region. The exceptional importance placed on the development of irrigated sections, in combination with increased use of chemicals in agriculture and other types of anthropogenic impact on the region's environment, also led to the negative phenomena noted above.

Therefore, the participants in the creative and working group of Program 6, from the very outset of the first phase, felt that work with the community and population is one of the main tasks in the strategy for fulfilling the project.

With this goal in mind, practical work was organized under World Bank aegis in May 1966 to train and work with the population, in order to involve it in determining priorities for solving socio-economic and land and water problems in one of the region's pilot zones; i.e., the Fergana Valley of Uzbekistan. At the start of their work, the seminar participants were familiarized with the methods proposed by the World Bank lecturers for working with respondents to determine priorities in solving socio-economic and ecological tasks in individual territories. In the Fergana Valley the respondents included both highly-placed persons, such as the region (oblast) leaders and leaders of regional, district and agricultural organizations, and various social strata of the population, including collective farmers, housewives, pensioners, private farmers, private proprietors and others.

This work was continued in Tajikistan. A traveling working group was organized, made up of scientists and specialists from agriculture, industry, the ecology, economics and sociology. Four members of this group participated in the practical seminar in Fergana, after which they had the right to train the remaining members to work using the methods obtained at this seminar.

Practical implementation and realization of the adopted program (of sociological research) was carried out using the following forms:

• Holding joint meetings of the local government authorities, formal and informal leaders, elders, agricultural specialists, workers in the social (budget) sphere, and other social and professional categories who are the users of the water and land resources;
• Traveling to survey some objects, inspect the locality and its present use, and the results of the activity of nature and the users of water and land resources, and during such trips meeting with residents of the locality, who became respondents; and,
• Meeting of researchers (correspondents) with the respondents right at their places of work and rest, homes, farms, sheepfolds, offices, hospitals, schools, residences, enterprises, markets, tearooms, mosques.

Using the above-mentioned forms, and employing various methods, the researchers (correspondents) solved the assigned tasks for achieving the research goals.

For example: The Semi-Structured Interview Method made it possible, through open questions and dialogue between the researchers and respondents, not only to confirm or refute the existing knowledge or views of the researchers, but also to obtain new information from the respondents. This method, through its fundamental questioning principles -- who, how, what, where, when and why -- in concert with others, was most effective when communicating with respondents in the categories of leaders and specialists at various levels.

The Map Drawing Method made it possible to disclose graphically the views of the respondents about the locality and the importance of various objects on the map, on the one hand, and on the other the respondents clarified and corrected the names of some springs and populated areas, and also indicated on the map sectors that, for some reason, were especially unique or remarkable.

The Seasonal Calendar Method made it possible to distinguish periods of activity and the degree of impact of the population on the environment -- use of water and land, forest cutting, livestock pasturing -- (and to compose) various seasonal calendars of the state of health of the population, depending especially on the quality of surface waters, as well as calendars of income and expenditures of the population, employment in agricultural work, etc.

The Venn Diagram Method enabled the respondents to reflect the nature of authority and obligation and the degree to which the population was included in the reform process in the village, as well as the structure of home management and power, the degree of their interrelationship, and the interaction with other structures, in the joint use of water, land and other resources. That is, this method is used to clarify the institutional structure in the management of natural resources.

Method of Ranking of Preferences and Matrix Ranking: These methods to some degree, and in combination with others, helped the research group, jointly with the respondents, to uncover and weigh criteria for allocating preferences among various objects and problems proposed for the respondent to assess.

The Method of Rapid Compilation of Reports, and its practical daily use, helped effectively to conduct quick analysis and generalize the results obtained using graphic methods and triangulation methods, since in this research essentially the same problems and questions were studied by various methods and various researchers.

Anonymous Quick Questionnaire Method. When this method was used, the research was conducted daily in one step, broken down by rural districts administrations (okrugy), using a "Your Opinion" quick questionnaire. The content of the questionnaire was determined from analysis of data obtained and existing, and based on the initial trials of other methods, from the standpoint of selecting indices according to their importance in solving practical tasks.

Selection of Pilot one (Research Zone). A number of pilot projects and pilot zones were determined within the framework of Program 6, where critical problems now exist in the land and water resource management system. The fact that it was necessary to involve the community in determining the priority problems (employing the above-enumerated methods) was taken into account. In preliminary discussion of the problem of these zones with the World Bank (task manager Stan Peabody), the Tajik Group focused on the upper reaches of the Tairsu River. This zone was very convenient for conducting research, since here all the problems characteristic of the entire republic existed, especially (in the view of the researchers):

• Social Problems  -- Poverty, unemployment, poor medical service, poor food supplies, unsatisfactory state of socially vulnerable groups, virtual absence of cultural and educational works, and others;
• Socio-Economic Problems  -- Lack of running drinking water; absence of sewer system, roads, electric power lines, bridges and telephone communications in the territories being newly restored; absence of mini-enterprises to process local raw materials (grain, fruit and grapes, meat, wool and hikes, dairy products, salt, medicinal plants), etc.; and,
• Ecological and Sanitary-Epidemiological Problems -- Shortage and low quality of drinking water; extremely poor sanitary-epidemiological state of populated areas; poor public health education; degradation of the land, and lack of protection of populated areas from mud and rock slides; shortage of land, especially irrigated; irrational use of land resources; the absence of a mini-preserve in the upper reaches of the Tairsu River where there exist an adequate number of representatives of the animal and plant world.

The main branches of the economy in this zone are agriculture, animal husbandry and bee keeping. Surveying the respondents using the methods (described above) showed that the most effective branch of the economy in this zone is animal husbandry. But development of this branch is hampered by the shortage of pasture lands. Many of the respondents gave preference to the joint development of both animal husbandry and agriculture. Intensive livestock grazing is the main cause of the increase in the area of eroded lands.

More than 100 people were surveyed. They suggested more than 30 large and small problems of the land and water resource management system that to some degree determine socio-economic development, including the level of poverty. Table 1 shows some of these problems and defines the importance of each (in the opinion of the various respondents).

Since the main task is to elucidate the priority problems that together would make it possible to solve tasks in the land and water resource management system, and subsequently help to improve the environment and the socio-economic situation, in analyzing the results of the surveys, the working group focused on the following priority actions:

The population (80 percent) of this zone does not have a drinking water supply system, and use, for drinking and household needs, water from a single source; i.e., from small streams that run into the Tairsu River. As a result, the ecological and sanitary-epidemiological situation in this region is in very poor condition. Therefore, one of the measures proposed was for drinking water supply by two routes:

• Run a pipeline from the nearby Kyzylsu River Basin (a distance of 20-25 km); and,
• Expand the capability of the water supply network using the pipeline from the Vakhsh River.

The underground waters of the Kyzylsu River Basin can be recommended for centralized water supply of the selected zone, since they correspond to existing drinking water standards. These measures were also proposed by the population itself, and ways of implementing them were also discussed with the population.

The Tairsu River Basin, like many other areas of Tajikistan, is an area of highest degree mud slide danger. Every year mud slides do tremendous harm to the region's economy and population. The banks of streams and rivers are unprotected, and as a result of mud slides the river beds overflow and lead to flooding of hundreds of ha of farmlands, and the destruction of populated areas, roads, bridges, etc. In developing protective measures against mud slides, a comprehensive approach is needed, especially of restorative, bank reinforcing, bed regulating and environmental protection measures.

The population survey showed that animal husbandry is the most income-producing economic branch. Therefore, its development in this zone is supported by both the state and the population. In connection with this, a heavy load is placed on pasture lands, and for the purpose of future land use it is necessary to carry out measures for their protection and rational use.

Measures for protection of land and water resources can be solved, along with socio-economic issues, by creating private farms and mini-processing enterprises. This will make it possible, first of all, to treat natural resources, especially land and water, in a reasonable way, since these resources become, in fact, the source of income of the farmers and population. Secondly, products of local origin (and ecologically clean products) will appear at local markets and in the food allowance of the population, which will be cheaper and more accessible, and which when sold can solve many of the problems of poverty.

All of these actions are also, first of all, products of the population survey, which afterward were evaluated by the working group, and from which scientific bases and financial tables were prepared.

The population was surveyed about the degree of importance of the measures being carried out, by various methods. For example, the following diagram shows the result of the survey of one of the farm managers, for whom the above-enumerated actions occupy a leading place.

The importance of each problem compared to the others was evaluated according to this diagram. And this comparison showed that in the diagram, 1st place was lack of money (6 instances); 2nd - shortage of pasture lands (5 instances); 3rd - shortage of equipment, fuels and lubricants, and spare parts (3 instances); 4th - drinking water (2 instances); 5th - bank reinforcement work (2 instances); and, 6th - lack of fertilizer. This method was also used in other cases.

After all the work had been carried out, a trip to the pilot zone was also organized, together with a Finnish expert, Dr. Mikko Punkari (phonetic). After becoming familiar with all the problems, several meetings were again held with the population. As a result, the final report was compiled according to the priorities of this zone from the standpoint of their influence on the environment and on the socio-economic development of the territory, according to the following results assessment criteria:

Finally, it must be noted that solving the problems of the Aral Sea Basin, which have profound socio-economic and ecological consequences, requires massive participation of the community, for which it is necessary to use in this region all methods and mechanisms so that the population participates activity, during both the stage of determination of priorities, and that of their implementation. The work carried out in Program 6 for this purpose may become an example, and in our view can be used in other Aral Sea Basin programs.