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Can Central Asia Engage With the Taliban Over Access To Water?
August 27th, 2023
Via Real Clear World, commentary on whether Central Asia can engage with the Taliban over water: Recently, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported the progress of Afghanistan’s Qosh Tepa Irrigation Canal, $670 million, 285-kilometer canal to irrigate 550,000 hectares of land by diverting 25% of the flow of the Amu Darya River. Irrigating northern Afghanistan has been a […]
Read more »Navigating Water Conflict in Central Asia: The Amu Darya River and the Qosha Tepa Canal Project
August 24th, 2023
Via Modern Diplomacy, an article on growing water tensions in Central Asia: In the post-Soviet era, Central Asia experienced a pronounced upsurge in geopolitical tensions, significantly shifting the focus toward the pressing matter of the water conflict between Uzbekistan and Afghanistan. At the crux of this contentious issue lies the Amu Darya River, a pivotal […]
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 […]
Read more »Water Conflicts Loom in Central Asia
August 13th, 2023
Via Institute for War and Peace Reporting, a look at how an ambitious infrastructure project in Afghanistan risks exacerbating scarcities in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, as the Qosh Tepa irrigation canal will direct the water from the Amu Darya river to the country’s arid northern region reducing the supply for downstream Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan: An irrigation […]
Read more »The Water Wars Coming to Central Asia
July 31st, 2023
Via Foreign Policy, a report on rising water tensions in Central Asia where the situation has been bad for decades, but the Taliban threaten to make them worse: In Turkmenistan, household faucets are running dry and locusts are devouring crops. In Kazakhstan, a state of emergency has been declared as the Caspian Sea shrinks to […]
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