57 / 88
Eastern Caspian
57
Environment and Security
to preventing pollution and conserving wet-
land biodiversity. To this end the Ak Zhayk
state nature reserve on the Ural delta is be-
ing established thanks to the joint efforts of
the Kazakh government, local authorities,
international organisations and communi-
ties (UNDP 2007).
The Kazakh government, which considers
the supply and quality of water a high prior-
ity, has developed the “Drinking Water Pro-
gramme 2003–10” which covers both east-
ern Caspian provinces. The programme has
been allocated substantial financial resourc-
es, with a national budget exceeding 100 bil-
lion tenge. Thanks to implementation of this
programme the share of the population with
access to tap water increased by roughly
3–7% by 2006. Furthermore water filters and
modern desalination facilities are being in-
stalled to improve drinking water quality.
Turkmenistan’s Balkan province also suf-
fers from water scarcity since permanent
surface waters are limited to the Atrek river,
the Yashan and Chilmamedkum groundwa-
ter lens and a number of shallow perennial
lakes and rivers
60
. The Karakum Canal, a
gigantic 1 300 km long artificial waterway
which takes water from the Amu Darya riv-
er terminates in Balkan province supplying
agricultural fields and settlements along its
banks, including in the eastern Caspian re-
gion
61
. The use of water from the Atrek river
remains a sensitive issue between Iran and
Turkmenistan, because in dry years the delta
receives virtually no water, which has a di-
rect impact on the livelihoods in the lower
reaches and delta due to the reduction in the
volume of water available for drinking, ag-
ricultural activities and especially fisheries.
(See the box devoted to the Atrek river).
Average domestic freshwater use in Balkan
province is 45 million cu m a year. About
70% of population has access to tap water.
In the recent past a number of settlements
on the Caspian coast of Turkmenistan were
supplied by water from the Volga and tank-
ers from Baku. After independence these
services stopped and alternatives had to be
found: desalination and local water tanks.
These solutions were quite problematic and
the water supply was repeatedly interrupted
due to technical failures
62
.
The towns of Esenguly, Garabogaz and
Turkmenbashy are supplied with water from
desalination plants and receive additional
water from the Balkan mountains via pipe-
lines. Traditional methods condensing water
from atmospheric moisture transported by
sea winds are being used in some places.
Industry uses more than 50% of all water
63
,
reflecting the province’s industrial profile.
The question of the availability of water
and its quality is a key issue in the eastern
Caspian region. There are major differences
in access between urban and rural areas,
with the latter at a clear disadvantage. In-
adequate access reinforces poverty in rural
areas, since poor families are forced to buy
water or fetch it from open sources (when
available). In addition to low per capita wa-
ter availability, a significant proportion of
the eastern Caspian rural population drinks
water that is often below quality limits. The
high mineral content of drinking water of-
ten results in kidney and bladder diseases,
enteric infections and viral hepatitis, and a
general decline in health. Poor water treat-
ment resulted in cholera outbreak in Aktau
in 2001 when crops were irrigated with un-
treated wastewater.