1. The Kura River Basin JTTF Group of participants from South Caucasus proposes establishing tri-lateral Joint Technical Task Force (JTTF) for a transboundary area of the Central Kura under (?..) UNECE/UNDP/OSCE/USAID/REC (?..) umbrella as a first step for cooperation Monitoring and Data Exchange group of stakeholders under USAID funded SCWP can be used as starting point At the same time support establishing of two bilateral trans-boundary commissions: Georgia- Azerbaijan and Georgia-Armenia based on the National Water Commissions

2. The Kura River Basin JTTF The Kura JTTF on a temporary base will serve as an embryo for multilateral cooperation among the three South Caucasus countries Other functions of the Kura JTTF may include regional coordination for other donor funded water projects The Kura JTTF eventually will transfer to a full scale international river basin commission covering larger area (entire basin, including Kura and Aras with tributaries) assuming that political climate in the region will improve and Iran and Turkey will find it beneficial to join

3. The Kura River Basin JTTF The Kura JTTF will be focused on the following issues: Assessing and exchanging data on surface and ground water quality and quality, water use, waste-water discharge, pollution hot-spots, etc; Flood protection measures, emergency and accidental pollution prevention measures; Harmonization measures on standards used, legislation and institutional needs, etc. Members of the JTTF will include: government counterparts from national hydro-meteorological and monitoring agencies, ministries of environment, irrigation, agriculture and energy sectors, water commission, NGOs, academia, etc.

4. The Kura River Basin JTTF As an example of one of practical functions the Kura JTTF will have is quarterly joint water quality monitoring and consequent analysis and exchange of data on trans- boundary part of the Kura by relevant government agencies of the three SC countries Along obtaining reliable information on the quality of water, it is expected that this exercise will help the countries to build trust and confidence over the accessibility of environmental information The joint monitoring is proposed at the following 6 stations: Ayrum (AM) and Sadakhlo (GE) on the Debed River; Imiri (GE) and Red Bridge (GE) on the Khrami River; Kesalo (GE) and Shykhly (AZ) on the Kura River