ADB launches food and water security programme in Central Asia with GCF support

On the 4th of November, at COP 29 in Azerbaijan, the Asian Development Bank, with the support of the Green Climate Fund, launched a new regional programme to promote water and food security in Central Asia, the South Caucasus and Pakistan.  The programme, titled Glaciers to Farms, seeks to protect water security and livelihoods in the context of accelerated glacial melt due to climate change. The programme takes a regional approach to address transboundary issues related to water scarcity, agricultural productivity, and the vulnerability of local communities.  
Regional Water Towers undergoing change  
Depending on the subregion, between 30%-60% of the region’s water comes from snow and glaciers. This water supports the provision of potable water, irrigation water and energy as well as the livelihoods of an estimated 480 million people in the region. For the lowlands of Central Asia, ice and snowmelt are principal water sources and are critical to the livelihoods of mountain communities.

One researcher has found that the Aral and Chu/Issyk-Kul basins, for example, produce some 7.5 km³ of meltwater in an average year, which is equivalent to ten months of municipal and industrial demand for Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. The glaciers and snow also slow down the release of water from the mountains, enabling agricultural production in the summer months.  These water sources are particularly at risk currently: while glaciers globally have lost 7% of their icepack since 1961, the rate of loss in Central Asia is up to threefold that of the global average. 

In the Caucasus, rising temperatures have caused glaciers to retreat by more than 600 m over the past century and it is estimated in a recent study by UNEP that more than 11 billion tonnes of freshwater have been lost as a result of glacial melt. More than 600 Greater Caucasus Glaciers have dropped by approximately 16%: over a period of some three decades, the area covered by glaciers in this region has decreased from 692km² to 590km².  This has begun to affect the physical and economic security of the population living in the region, as the frequency of natural disasters such as mudslides and floods has increased, and water sources across the region are diminishing.   
Pakistan has surveyed more than 3000 glacial lakes, of which 36 were found to be potentially dangerous and at high risk of outburst. The country is highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change: as reported in The Water Diplomat, in  2022, the country suffered heavy floods which affected 33 million people, disproportionately affecting regions in which poorer communities are located.  

The Programme  
With the support of the Green Climate Fund’s (GCF) Project Preparation Facility, ADB will conduct risk assessments of glacial melt in Azerbaijan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan—forming the scientific and technical basis for the Glacier to Farms program.

The GCF and ADB will work together with countries in the region to increase the resilience of economies to climate change across a range of sectors, including energy, agriculture, infrastructure, transport and health. Some of the key initiatives revolve around water, focusing on the reduction of water losses and boosting watershed protection through integrated water resource management systems. This is expected to enhance the efficient and equitable sharing of water resources across river basins, develop and improve water storage and management systems, and identify appropriate investments based on climate risk vulnerability assessments. 

Similarly, in the agricultural sector which is a key sector in the region’s economies, climate  adaptation and mitigation measures are envisaged to increase agricultural productivity and boost food security, amongst others through a transition to climate-smart agricultural systems and more efficient irrigation systems.     
The proposed actions under the programme are anchored in the Climate Action Roadmap for Central and West Asia and the CAREC Climate Change Action Plan.

Project Preparation Facility 
The food and water security programme is being supported by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) through its Project Preparation Facility (PPF). This facility has been established in recognition that the development of climate-related project proposals requires specific capacities which may not be readily available. Therefore, the GCF provides support to accredited entities in each country in preparing full proposals based on a concept note which has been cleared for project preparation support. A range of types of support can be provided, such as support for pre-feasibility and feasibility studies, risk assessments, environmental, social and gender impact studies, and so forth. 
The GCF provides funding of up to USD 1.5 million for each application to the PPF, in proportion to the size of the funding proposal being developed and to the activities included in the PPF application.