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Is Balkhash Facing Fate of Aral Sea?
December 29th, 2023
Via Central Asian Bureau for Analytical Reporting, a report on Lake Balkhash’s complex hydro future: Now Balkhash is a natural site. If a nuclear power plant is built on the lake, it will turn into an industrial pond. It will let China limit the Ili river flow feeding the lake, and the new load on […]
Read more »Impact of Afghanistan’s Kushtepa Canal on Central Asia
November 16th, 2023
Via the Central Asian Bureau for Analytical Reporting (CABAR), a discussion of the impact of the construction of the Afghan Kushtepa Canal on the water balance in Central Asia: During the analytical expert meeting organized by CABAR.asia on 31 October, experts from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan discussed the prospects and consequences of the construction […]
Read more »Reevaluating The Forgotten River Civilizations of Central Asia
October 5th, 2023
Via PNAS, an interesting paper examining the Aral Sea basin in Central Asia in which its major rivers, the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, were the center of advanced river civilizations, and a principal hub of the Silk Roads over a period of more than 2,000 y. The region’s decline has been traditionally attributed to […]
Read more »Kyrgyz-Kazakh Relations Strained Amid Water Cutoff
August 27th, 2023
Via Radio Free Europe, a report at how water is straining Kyrgyz-Kazakh relations: The video recorded on a Kazakh farmer’s smartphone reached the Internet like a distress signal. “Zhambyl Province. Sugar beet. There is no water. The beet has died,” the voice said over footage of failed crops in this traditionally fertile corner of southern […]
Read more »Water: A Barrier to Central Asia’s Rise?
August 23rd, 2023
Via Geopolitical Futures, a look at how Central Asia’s growing role could be hampered by a long-standing problem – water scarcity: Amid growing Western pressure and changes throughout Eurasia, regions that were once considered on the Eurasian periphery are now gaining significance. Chief among them is Central Asia, a region that was historically considered part […]
Read more »Iran Warns of Caspian Sea’s Shrinking Coastline
August 15th, 2023
Via Tasnim News, a report on climate change’s impact on the Caspian Sea: Iran’s mission to the UN office in Geneva warned that the Caspian Sea’s water levels have been dropping according to satellite images provided by the Iranian Space Agency. In a post on X, the Permanent Mission of Iran to the United Nations […]
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