Kazakhstan Promotes the Establishment of an International Water Organization within the UN System

On 23 April 2026, the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea (IFAS), A. Orazbay, took part in a round table / consultations of the heads of water management agencies of the region on the establishment of an International Water Organization within the UN system. The event was organized by the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan as part of the Regional Ecological Summit 2026 in Astana.
In December 2025, at an international forum in Ashgabat, the President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, proposed the creation of an International Water Organization within the UN framework. The establishment of such an organization would recognize water as a global public good and ensure the institutional integration of the water agenda into key UN mechanisms. The proposed IWO could serve as a platform for aligning policy, science, finance, and practice, as well as for shaping a unified global narrative linking water security with climate, food, and economic resilience.
In the Astana Statement of the Heads of State–Founders of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea, signed on 22 April 2026 in Astana, the Parties noted the initiative of the Republic of Kazakhstan regarding the possible establishment of such an organization within the UN system, and emphasized that further consideration of this issue should be based on broad international consensus within the relevant UN processes.