Posted on 08 July 2008
Ottawa, July 8, 2008 – At Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA) held the 17th Annual Session from June 29th to July 3rd, 2008. Kazakhstan, a central Asian country, is adjacent to China and Russia and is a regional neighbour of nearby Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran.
Kazakhstan is the fourth largest country in the world in size and is reputed to have the fourth largest oil reserves in the world. Its population is made up of 15 million people and its official language is Kazakh. As a post-Soviet independent state, it has a working Parliament and can be considered a developing democracy. As a secular modern Muslim state, it offers freedom of worship to the major religions institutions, Eastern Rights and Roman Catholics, Anglicans and Jews.
Senator Grafstein introduced a number of major resolutions that were adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly. Particular attention was paid to his ongoing concerns about clean drinking water and water management practices throughout the OSCE space which, made up of fifty-six member states, reaches from Vancouver to Vladivostok.
Senator Grafstein noted as he introduced his resolution that “clean water was the ‘new oil’ and that in Canada one third of our Aboriginal communities still lack clean drinking water as is the case with many smaller communities across Canada.”
He further remarked that: “In Kazakhstan, the Aral Sea which was once the fourth largest in the world, has shrunk three quarters in size since 1967. The scarcity of clean drinking water throughout the OSCE space has been rapidly increasing in recent years.”
Senator Grafstein was delighted that the attached Resolution dealing with clean water policy was unanimously adopted in committee after rigorous discussion and then in the plenary session.