Hydro4U aims at bringing together stakeholders from industry, politics and science, both from Central Asia and the European Union in order to contribute to a sustainable and climate-resilient future for the region by demonstrating European small hydropower equipment and technologies.

One task within Hydro4U is the development of academic programmes and courses on sustainable hydropower for students from Europe and Central Asia. Hydro4U project partner Kyrgyz State Technical University named after Iskhak Razzakov (KSTU) is hosting annually a two-week Summer School for students titled “Kyrgyzstan – Hydropower, Ecology and Hydromorphology”. This programme was already designed in 2019 by KSTU and Technical University of Munich (TUM). The SummerSchool is financially supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).

From 14 to 26th September 2021, students from Germany and Kyrgyz Republic experienced the incredible potential of hydropower in Kyrgyzstan but also learned about ecological impacts and sustainability related to ecology and hydro-morphology. The main organisational work of the Summer School was done by Venera Baichekirova, Head of the International Department at KSTU. On the technical side, she was supported by Prof. Trukmen Jabudaev and Prof. Nuridin Niazov, both from KSTU, and Dr. Markus Reisenbüchler from TUM. The concept of the Summer School consists of lectures and workshops at KSTU in Bishkek combined with field trips to interesting sites in the Kyrgyz Republic related to hydropower and natural river systems. The programme is completed by cultural offers such as Russian language courses and sightseeing trips.

Hydro4U contributed actively to the Summer School programme to reach students and academic experts. After an overall introduction by Prof. Jabudaev (KSTU) on renewable energies in the Kyrgyz Republic, Dr. Markus Reisenbüchler (TUM) introduced the Hydro4U project as well as concepts for sustainable small-scale hydropower and ecological river management in an interactive workshop. Further lectures from Hydro4U were given by Dr. Tobias Siegfried (Hydrosolutions Ltd) on “Climate and Climate Change in Central Asia” and Oyture Anarbekov (IWMI-CA) on “Advancing Water-Energy-Food-Climate Nexus concept: Examples from Central Asia”. Both talks explained to the students the environmental and agricultural background of Central Asia and drew a picture on future challenges in this interesting region. A highlight was the guided tour by Prof. Niazov through the Toktogul and Kurp Sai hydropower stations. Further technical sites visited were the Chakan GES SHPs (guided by Mr. Ulan Aituganov), the Kambar-Ata-2 HP (guided by Mr. Marat Nabatov) and the Orto-Tokoy irrigation reservoir (guided by Mr. Nurbek Sadygaliew).

This Summer School is an ideal way to gather students but also experts from Europe and Central Asia to discuss and learn in an exciting environment. The Hydro4U consortium is happy that they could contribute to this event.

Authors: Markus Reisenbüchler, TUM and Oyture Anarbekov, International Water Management Institute IWMI

photo credits: Markus Reisenbüchler, Technische Universität München