24 / 56
Environment and Security
24
/
litical commitment – in practice the issue of water as well
as overall environmental management is left largely up to
bilateral relations between individual states. In Central Asia
the ASBP and IFAS should provide a basis for joint policies
and actions. At a national level the various ministries should
be able to integrate the actions of the interstate bodies into
national policies, strategies and programmes. But the real
ability of ministries to fulfil the task is often overestimated.
At a provincial level the involvement of local government,
the private sector, and civil society organizations and in-
stitutions is needed to translate policies and programmes
into action and provide feedback. Civil society is often an
important vector for parties directly concerned by water
issues to express their views. The actual decision-making
process often ignores this aspect of participation, despite
attempts by some interstate organizations such as IFAS or
ISDC to create public advisory bodies drawing on NGOs.
International organisations such as the World Bank are in-
creasingly engaged in facilitating high-level discussions and
negotiations among the Central Asian states on the issue of
the water-energy nexus. If the current process of establish-
ing a “water-energy consortium” is successful, the water and
energy concerns of the states may finally be integrated into a
single, long-term regional policy and operational framework.
But the limited prospects for adequate outside investment
in a deal of this nature may hinder negotiations.
The Ferghana valley
Water is a basic production resource for agriculture. Com-
petition for scarce water resources has been recognised
as a potential source of international conflict. Individual
nations and the international system as a whole have nev-
ertheless learnt to manage this threat. Previous research
(Klötzli, 1994) identified three main Central Asian regions
where incidents over water use occur regularly: the
Amu-
Darya delta
, the
Zeravshan valley
, and the
Ferghana valley
.
However in the case of the Zeravshan and Ferghana valleys,
despite the very local character of conflicts, the presence of
international borders and/or the implication of communities
belonging to another ethnic group have loaded the conflict
with a transborder and/or ethnic dimension.
As discussed above, the tensions related to management
of water from the Toktogul reservoir have strained rela-
tions between Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan
to the point that Kyrgyz troops were deployed in summer
2000 and 2001 (drought years) to protect the reservoir and
water release operations. On the other hand the constant
involvement of interstate bodies, multilateral organizations,
international financial organizations and key regional play-
ers is a guarantee that enough pressure and resources are
brought to bear on the problem to find a peaceful solution
acceptable to the Central Asian states.
There is now growing overall consensus that water scarcity
as such will not cause wars between nations. But there is
also a growing conviction that water scarcity exacerbates
the underlying conditions that fuel livelihood conflicts,
particularly while countries are going through the crucial
transition period between dependence on agriculture
and a modern society, based on urban economic growth.
These findings apply to Central Asia where, as we have
seen, states have been able to find pragmatic solutions to
water-related disputes. There is greater cause for concern
at a sub-state level.
On the basis of the results of earlier studies, ENVSEC obser-
vations during 2004 field visits and consultations in Osh, the
water question in the Ferghana area hinges on three main
categories of issue:
water availability and access to water;
water quality; rising groundwater and waterlogging
.
Research (Savoskul et al. 2003) points out that the area af-
fected by salinization and waterlogging has increased over
the last decade from roughly 25% to 50% of all irrigated
land. At present 31% of irrigated land has a water table
within 2 metres of the surface and 28% of irrigated land
suffers from moderate to high salinity levels, resulting in a
20%-30% drop in crop yield. Soil contamination linked to
irrigated agriculture (contamination by pesticides, nitrates
and strontium) is an issue in the whole central part of the Fer-
ghana valley where the highest soil salinity is observed.
The problems of secondary salinization and agriculture-
related pollution are not new, being clearly linked to the
spread of irrigation systems and the construction of large
dams along the Syr-Darya (and Amu-Darya) in 1965-85.
During this period the Soviet “government devoted more
Water wars
Research into the prospect of “water wars” shows that
a war has never been fought for water. Only a handful of
minor water “skirmishes” can be identified for the past
century, while over the same period 145 water-related
treaties were signed. However, it should be noted that
“there is ample evidence that the lack of clean fresh-
water has led to occasionally intense political instability
and that, on a small scale, acute violence can result.”
Source: Wolf, 1998
The fowling and hunting of Akhsi are very good
indeed; white deer abound in the waste on the
Akhsi side of the Saihun; in the jungle on the
Andijan side, abundant and well-fed bucks and
does, pheasant and hare are had.