A critical review of the concept of equity to support water allocation at various scales in the Amu Darya basin

Even though `equity¿ appears to be the major objective on all water management levels, the concept as such and its implication for water management are hardly explored within the professional water debate. Utilizing different arguments from the public sector, management and psychology debates, it is argued that the concept of equity is often undefined and usually ambiguous. The paper goes on to explore aspects of `equity¿ of water allocation between the different riparian states in the Amu Darya basin and between the different upstream and downstream provinces in Uzbekistan and districts within the Khorezm Province of Uzbekistan.