BACKGROUND

The need for the creation of WHYCOS component in the Aral Sea Basin (Aral-HYCOS) was acknowledged by five countries of the Aral Sea Basin and Secretariat of WMO since time of initiatory preparatory stage of the continued program for saving the Aral Sea.

Thereafter, the essential progress, that lead to the important needs for development and implementation of such project, has been achieved in the region. In this regard, it is necessary to mention the signing of the Central Asian states «Agreement on Information Exchange on the surface transboundary waters in the Aral Sea Basin» on May 20, 1998 in Tashkent by the national Hydrometeorological services, the precise expression of the countries interest on the document signing by the same services with WMO offer to begin the implementation of Aral-HYCOS project on June 16, 1999, the increased international and bilateral support with establishment of IFAS, development and implementation of many projects connected to the water, for which it is required the collection and exchange of the hydrologic data, establishment of the Regional Center of Hydrology for support of the monitoring, data processing, regional data exchange, forecast and training.

The first project proposal was prepared in 1999 and considered as a good reason for the «Aral-HYCOS» development. Project Formulation Report was prepared by Secretariat of WMO by 2000 and accepted for distribution in October 2002. Later, the IFAS Board (August 28, 2003) has decided to approve «Program of concrete actions on improvement of ecological and social-economic situations in the Aral Sea Basin for the period of  2003-2010» (ASBP-2), with partial realization by the Aral-HYCOS project.

At the donors meeting organized by EC IFAS on November 16, 2004 in Dushanbe the idea of implementation of the Aral-HYCOS project was endorsed. 

On December 6-7, 2006 in Almaty was held the Regional consultative meeting on discussion of the Aral-HYCOS project, organized by EC IFAS in association with the NHMS of Kazakhstan by the financial support of WМО. The main goal of the meeting was discussion, amendment and approval of the new Project Document Aral-HYCOS for the seeking of the donors support and possible implementation of the project for the benefit of all member-countries.