[Index]
[Russian]
WATER AND ENERGY IN CENTRAL ASIA
PREVENTING THE SLOW DEATH
OF THE ARAL SEA
Geneva, 18 June 2004 - As much
as 90% of the water of the two rivers
that feed the Aral Sea – the Syr
Darya and the Amu Darya (total flow 116
km3 a year) – is used up before
reaching it. Most of this water is used
for the irrigation of crops such as cotton.
If present trends continue, the Aral Sea
will disappear altogether in the not-so-distant
future despite the many piecemeal efforts
to save it.
These are some of the
findings of a recent study by the United
Nations Economic Commission for Europe
(UNECE) and the Economic and Social Commission
for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). These
two United Nations regional commissions
have recently concluded a project on the
links between water and energy in Central
Asia and published the results.1 In the
first major project of its kind in a subregion
where water is scarce and cooperation
often an uphill struggle, the two regional
commissions have brought together local
water and energy decision makers and experts
and produced up-to-date diagnostic
studies and a cooperation strategy
that four of the Central Asian countries
have endorsed.
Owing to economic and
social problems, there is not enough money
to maintain and rehabilitate the water
infrastructure that is essential for the
subregion’s agriculture, on which
many people rely for their livelihoods
and their food. The deteriorating dams,
canals, pumping stations and drainage
systems make irrigation even less efficient,
waste more water and degrade productive
agricultural land, the study also notes.
Central Asia’s
energy resources are unevenly distributed.
While Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan
are relatively well supplied with hydrocarbon
resources, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan rely
largely on imports and their own hydropower.
Moreover, the energy industry is underdeveloped
and its facilities run down. The extremely
inefficient use of energy resources means
that conservation and energy efficiency
are a priority.
When they became independent,
the Central Asian States agreed to continue
with the Soviet water allocation quotas
until a new solution could be negotiated.
However, the sovereign States have found
it hard to work out new water-sharing
agreements. The upstream (Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan) and downstream (Kazakhstan,
Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) countries
have different interests, which is why
cooperation has been so tricky. For example,
the increased use of water for electricity
generation in the wintertime by energy-poor
Kyrgyzstan has had a negative impact on
the downstream countries, which use water
mainly for irrigation in the summer. If,
as expected, Afghanistan’s water
use increases, this will make matters
worse.
With water in short supply,
daunting environmental problems and a
deteriorating infrastructure in the water
sector, the Central Asian States have
to strengthen their cooperation and find
new agreements. In the energy sector,
too, it is necessary for them to improve
their cooperation, for example by re-establishing
the Central Asian Unified Power Grid.
The cooperation strategy,
proposed in the study, gives a concentrated
recipe for future water and energy policies
and cooperation in the region. It is,
for instance, essential to develop the
legal framework for water and energy cooperation,
to strengthen national and regional institutions,
to improve monitoring and information
on water resources, and to protect water
and energy resources.
The two Executive Secretaries
of UNECE and ESCAP are paying high-level
visits to the five Central Asian States
this year to discuss ways of further strengthening
the support to national and regional efforts,
including the implementation of the cooperation
strategy.
For more information
about this project or the United Nations
Special Programme for the Economies of
Central Asia (SPECA), please visit the
UNECE web site:
http://www.unece.org/speca/
or contact the Regional Advisers:
Mr. Bo Libert
UNECE Environment and Human Settlements
Division
Palais des Nations, office 315
CH - 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Phone: +41 (0)22 917 23 96
Fax: +41 (0)22 917 01 07
E-mail: [email protected]
and
Mr. Evgeniy Nadezhdin
UNECE Industrial Restructuring, Energy
and Enterprise Development Division
Palais des Nations, office 460
CH - 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Phone: +41 (0)22 917 13 90
Fax: +41 (0)22 917 00 38
E-mail: [email protected]
__________
1Strengthening
cooperation for rational and efficient
use of water and energy resources in Central
Asia. Special Programme for the Economies
of Central Asia (SPECA). United Nations
Sales No. GV. E. 04.04. ISBN 92-1-101070-5.
106 p. It is also available on http://www.unece.org/speca/energy/energ_he.htm.
Ref: ECE/ENV/04/P10