Moderator
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Dear colleagues,
I would like to invite you for participation in the discussion on the issues of efficient use of natural resources in the Central Asian region.
It is well known that sufficiency of water and energy resources, access to them of population, and environmentally sound development are the major indicators of and factors impacting on human development. Specificity of geographical location and climate of the Central Asian states emphasizes significance and importance of the environmental issues. Water and energy problems solving have being presented in the agenda of the most actual issues of human development maintenance and ensuring sustainability in Central Asia within recent 20 years on the regional level.
The region located in a zone of continental climate with poor rainfall during the summer period and a high level of solar radiation, bears considerable shortage of water resources. Irrigated agriculture has been developed on the territory of the region during down the centuries; across all Central Asia artificial oases have been created. Extension of irrigated area and population growth leads to increased needs in water, and, therefore, to deficiency of water resources. Global climate changes could also result in such problems as scarcity of fresh water, drought and desertification.
These and other reasons call forth to necessity of discussion of the issues relevant to supplying the countries with water and energy resources. In the long-range outlook the urgency of the given issues will increase in view of the following:
- Limited nature of water and energy resources has a global disposition,
- Rapid growth of the population of the region supposes the growth of needs in drinking and service water,
- Development of industrial sector in the transition economies will require additional expenditures of energy resources.
At this conjuncture of obvious deficiency of such important natural resources, the abovementioned issues propose to place high emphasis from the countries’ authorities on effective and rational use of water and energy resources.
However efforts undertaken only on national levels could not provide sufficient results. That is why the countries of the region are seeking the most effective forms of cooperation in this sphere.
Thus, in 1992, the Central Asian states signed the Agreement “On cooperation in the sphere of a joint management, use and protection of water resources of intergovernmental sources” and created Interstate Commission for Water Coordination (ICWC). ICWC manages all transborder resources of the Central Asian states based on the principles and volumes of water-distribution among countries. Also the Agreement “On joint actions on Aral sea and Priaralye’s problems solving, ecologic enhancement and socio-economic development of the Aral region” has been signed.
However these signed agreements do not help in solving the problems of water and energy resources use in full measure. There are also difficulties in coordinating joint use of water among the countries within the framework of joint agreements and activities of regional organizations. These measures could become the catalyst for intensifying interethnic and interstate contradictions in Central Asia.
Could the issues of water and energy use become a source of potential conflicts in the region?
What approach is demanded for the problem-solving at the regional level?
How the process of problem-solving will affect on human development of the countries of the region?
Herein we would like to invite you to express your view on the abovementioned issues and reasons. The discussion will continue through the month, and the basic conclusions and recommendations will be formulated basing on the summary of the discussion results. |
LI LIFAN
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The Present Condition of Water Resource in Central Asia and the Importance of sound Management
Central Asia lies in the center of the Eurasian landmass and has a very dry atmosphere, where average rainfall is low and evaporation – and the cost of water – is high. The topography is a combination of grassland and desert, and because of the lack of protection afforded the few water resources available, a serious crisis has now appeared, including the vanishing of the Aral Sea and growth of various deserts.In Central Asia, the principal supply of water comes from the Amu Darya and Syr Darja rivers. However, because of agricultural and industrial development, these rivers have become polluted and greatly diminished.And this problem is not likely to abate any time soon as water
demand increases and resources diminish.
This situation, aptly categorized as a crisis, has a significant impact on the security, economic stability, and societal development of Central Asia. The Central Asian water network was run somewhat efficiently during the command economy days of the Soviet Union, but since independence, disputes have increasingly broken out over how the system should be managed. For instance, according to some statistics, due to the loss of water resources for farming, 15,000 square kilometers of Kazakh cotton went unirrigated. Additionally, rice output decreased approximately 40% in the last year. Beyond economics, this contest for the water resource has aggravated the relations between countries of the region. As upstream countries such as Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan seek to use their water resources for their own purposes, the more powerful downstream nations, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, have responded negatively, threatening both economic damages and heightened tensions on the border. For instance, in 1997, a Kyrgyz-Kazakh dispute over water lead to a shut-down in cross-border trade and the shipment of needed goal to Kyrgyzstan.And China has a role to play in this problem as its irrigation of Xinjiang has greatly diminished the water levels of Lake Balkash in Kazakhstan. As more plans are developed to further irrigate Central Asia and Xinjiang or build new hydropower plants, tensions have increased and nations have begun to consider water a true national security topic.
The Central Asians have, to date, failed to manage this problem themselves and outside nations and international organization have only met with limited success in helping untangle this knot. The United States and Israel, as well as the EU and World Banks has offered assistance, yet the problems persists.v And many view these approached as a way for outside powers to gain control over a vital Central Asian resource, and, thus, over the political development of the region.
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