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Hydroplomacy: A Central Asian Water Summit
April 27th, 2009
Via Yahoo, news of an upcoming meeting among the five leaders of Central Asian nations to try to end a bitter row over water use in one of the world’s driest regions. As the article notes: “…The dispute over cross-border water sharing in the vast region north of Afghanistan is a worry for its leaders […]
Read more »Central Asia: Creation of A Downstream Water-Energy Bloc
April 12th, 2009
Via Windows on Eurasia, an interesting report on the geopolitics behind the death of the Aral Sea and the emergence of “the youngest desert in the world, the Aralkum†which, as the article notes, are causing the countries around it to be increasingly drawn into serious conflicts over ever scarcer water resources. “…as a result […]
Read more »Central Asia Water Wars: Turkmenistan To Join Kazakhstan & Uzbekistan Vs. Kyrgyzstan & Tajikistan
April 12th, 2009
Via The Foreign Policy Association, a report that – in advance of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea meeting in Almaty on April 28 – Uzbekistan’s President, Islam Karimov, has been busy convincing Turkmenistan’s President, Gurbangly Berdymukhamedov, to ally with the downstream Central Asian states against the upstream ones. As the article notes: […]
Read more »Central Asia’s Water Tensions Heat Up Over Planned Hydroelectric Projects
April 10th, 2009
Via Eurasia.Net, a report that Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan are preparing to jointly block Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan’s proposed hydroelectric projects. As the article notes: “…Both downstream users of Central Asia’s main waterways, the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, may use an upcoming conference on the Aral Sea to try to block hydro-power projects under consideration […]
Read more »Transferring Water From Wet Regions to Dry Regions
March 21st, 2009
Via Radio Free Europe, an interesting look at the possibility of exporting water from wet countries to dry ones, specifically a 2,000 kilometer canal which would send water from the Ob River in Siberia to the Aral Sea basin in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. As the article notes: “…Many parts of the northern hemisphere — such […]
Read more »Hydro-Solidarity and Transboundary River Issues in Central Asia & The Middle East
March 20th, 2009
Via Terra Daily, an interesting look at three of the most challenging regions managing trans-boundary river issues and the chance for “hydro-solidarity” to overcome rising tensions in the Middle East and former Soviet Central Asia, both water-deprived regions with rapidly growing populations along with rising agricultural, industrial and energy requirements. As the article notes: “…Three […]
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