ITAR-TASS News Agency
November 1

Koichiro Matsuura, UNESCO Director-General, is to propose UNESCO's new initiative on the study of the Aral Sea problem at the current international seminar on the problems of freshwater. The seminar is taking place in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. The document has been prepared within the framework of the World Programme for the Estimate of Water Resources, an official at the UNESCO headquarters here has told Itar-Tass.

The seminar in Dushanbe is involving representatives of UN agencies, and high-level politicians from six countries of the Aral Sea areaAfghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan.

A series of new research will rely on data that have been already collected by UN agencies and, in particular, on the UNESCO special report, which analyses possibilities for an outbreak of conflicts, and the potential of cooperation among Aral Sea countries.

Mr. Matsuura's report is to be published at the beginning of next year and will be timed for the International Year of Fresh Water (2003).

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