BLOG
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 […]
Read more »Water Crisis Looming: Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan’s Imperative for The Grand Afghan Canal
July 22nd, 2023
Via the Central Asian Bureau for Analytical Reporting (CABAR), analysis of the water crisis looking between Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Afghanistan: In March 2022, the self-proclaimed Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan set in motion an ambitious plan for the Qosh Tepa irrigation canal, a potential lifeline for drought-ridden Afghanistan. However, its construction casts a looming shadow over Uzbekistan […]
Read more »The Taliban’s New Canal Threatens Water Security in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan
July 6th, 2023
Courtesy of The Diplomat, commentary on how the Taliban’s rush to complete the Qosh Tepa canal is placing Central Asia’s water security at risk: On March 30, 2022, Taliban Deputy Prime Minister Mulla Abdul Ghani Baradar launched the construction of the Qosh Tepa canal, which will divert significant amount of water from the Amu Darya – a […]
Read more »Afghanistan Seeks to Control Its Own Water Destiny
May 6th, 2023
Via The Diplomat, a look at how the Taliban’s plan to upgrade Afghanistan’s water infrastructure is raising tensions with neighboring countries: Facing acute drought conditions, the Taliban government is undertaking an ambitious program to upgrade its water infrastructure. However, the program has elevated tensions with the countries surrounding Afghanistan. Kabul lacks the technical ability to […]
Read more »The Water Brokers
May 4th, 2023
Courtesy of GRIST, a look at a small Nevada company which spent decades buying water and now – as the West dries up – is cashing out: For the first two decades of the 21st century, not even a once-in-a-millennium drought could deter real estate developers from building vast suburban tracts on the wild edges […]
Read more »Afghan Canal A Test For Taliban Ties In Water-Stressed Central Asia
April 9th, 2023
Via Radio Free Europe, commentary on a planned new Afghan canal which will parch an already water-stressed Central Asia: When the Taliban returned to power in 2021 in a lightning military insurrection that toppled Afghanistan’s internationally recognized government, the country immediately fell into diplomatic isolation. Two of Kabul’s neighbors to the north, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, […]
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