Geneva, 22 May 2003 - At the
fifth Ministerial Conference "Environment
for Europe" in Kiev this week, the countries
of Central Asia will present an initiative
on environment, water and security to
the international community in an effort
to make development in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan
sustainable. The United Nations Economic
Commission for Europe (UNECE) fully
backs this initiative. But why a new
initiative?
A catalogue
of environmental woes
The dire predicament
of the Aral Sea has been well known
since the late 1980s. Its level dropped
by 17 to 19 metres and it lost 75% of
its volume, and experts now fear that
Lake Balkhash, one of the largest lakes
on the Eurasian continent, may be next.
But Central Asia faces a catalogue of
environmental woes - desertification,
loss of biodiversity, salinization,
deforestation - all of which take their
toll on the region's development prospects.
Central Asia's prosperity
depends largely on the natural balance
in the zones of river formation - the
mountainous ecosystems of the Pamirs,
Tien Shan and Altai. High mountain ecosystems
absorb moisture from the upper layers
of the atmosphere, transported by air
masses mainly from the Atlantic Ocean,
and act as gigantic freshwater accumulators.
However, deforestation, erosion, waste
pollution and rangeland reduction are
increasingly causing problems in Central
Asia's mountains. The glaciers of the
Pamirs and Altai lost over 25% of their
ice reserves between 1957 and 2000.
Forested areas in Central
Asia have shrunk to less than a quarter
of their original extent since the middle
of the past century.
Water is still considered
primarily in terms of its contribution
to agriculture and power generation,
with little regard for its other functions
and much of it is wasted. Consequently,
drinking-water quality, public health,
soil fertility and crop yields are deteriorating,
while poverty, unemployment and migration
are on the increase. For instance, in
Kazakhstan some 4 million people do
not have piped water, 14% of the urban
and 27% of the rural population do not
have access to safe drinking water,
and 16.5% use water from open reservoirs
for drinking purposes. About 40% of
the population of Tajikistan uses water
from open sources.
Central Asia's development
revolves around its water and land resources.
This explains why the five Central Asian
States have decided to join forces to
address the huge challenges that they
face to achieve sustainable development
and especially sound water management.
They hope that their initiative will
prevent the further degradation of their
vulnerable ecosystems, and ensure the
supply of water, of requisite quality
and in sufficient quantities, to the
public, industry and agriculture without
playing havoc with the environment.
For further information, please contact:
Bo Libert, Regional Adviser
UNECE Environment and Human Settlements
Division
Palais des Nations, office 315
CH - 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Phone: +41 (0) 79 202 68 43 /
+41 (0) 22 917 23 96
Fax: +41 (0) 22 907 01 07
E-mail: [email protected]
Ref: ECE/ENV/03/P09