Water-Energy Crisis in Central Asia - Essay Example

Water-Energy Crisis in Central Asia Central Asian nations started experiencing social and economic hitches after the break up from the larger Soviet Union Republic. This problem became pronounces within the water and energy sectors of the five nations making up Central Asia. These five independent nations include Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Heads of states from all the nations engage in regular negotiations directed towards developing long-term solutions to grievances presented from each independent country. Prior to the split up, the entire central Asian region fell under administration of Moscow. Moscow’s administration had structured mechanisms meant to ensure equitable distribution of water and energy resources within the region (Murodbek 261). However, independence from Soviet Union ushered in unprecedented challenges to the nations under consideration. Main rivers supplying domestic and agricultural water to the five nations originate from mountain ranges within Tajikistan and the neighboring Kyrgyzstan, and then flows downstream through the other remaining three nations and finally drains into Aral Sea. From a rational perspective, the two nations within the upstream region should ensure undisrupted flow of water to nations lying on the downstream region. On the other hand, downstream nations are rich in oil and gas energy sources. This means that they will return the undisrupted water supply favor by pumping oil and gas to Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan (Murodbek 261). This plan worked efficiently under the Soviet Union administration before secession of Central Asian sovereign territories. Despite the fact that this resource sharing strategy sounds simple and logical, current state of affairs between the nations involved does not conform to this strategy. Consequently, lack of conformance to equitable sharing of resources has led to technical hitches within economic, social and political relationships between nations in the entire region. As an illustrative example, generation of hydro-electric power by nations in the upstream region like Tajikistan as met vehement disapproval from downstream counterparts (Murodbek 263). At this juncture, this essay will develop a comprehensive analysis on causes and effects of the water-energy crisis. In addition, an extrapolation of the theme will examine existence of similar problems in other nations around the globe. Nations lying within the upstream section of Central Asia, especially Tajikistan engages in intensive agricultural activities as their main economic activities. In the recent past, necessity to expand the nation’s economic sector led to expansion of agriculture through irrigation. As a result, Tajikistan diverted large volumes of water from the two main rivers serving the region into the irrigated tracks of land. This increased supply of water to farms was not going to be seasonal. The huge tracks of land lie within an arid and semi-desert regions of the nation. This means that irrigation requires sustained amount of water supply to meet agricultural production demands. In this case, extensive irrigation of cotton and wheat farms remained as the central economic activity in the lower part of Tajikistan (Murodbek 263). In addition, other nations including Kazakhstan tapped river water in the middle of flowing channels conveyed them directly to their farms. In this regard, every nation tried to expand its agricultural sector by utilizing the only available water from the two main river channels. Consequently, this caused a pronounced shortage of total water flowing down stream. This means that economic and social activities of people living within the affected nations would experience difficulties (Murodbek 265). At this juncture, expansion of irrigation fed agriculture featured as one of the main cause in the water-energy crisis in Central Asian region. Apart from irrigation, energy generation through hydro-electricity played a significant role in causing the water-energy crisis witnessed in the region. Soviet Union administration had structured mechanisms that ensured proportional allocation of water resources to Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan within the upper region. A certain threshold rationale demanded these two nations to utilize water for electric generation and supply the remaining amount downstream. However, split of Soviet federation saw different nations developing their own customized priorities in economic and social developments. As a result, Tajikistan increased their electric generation capacity, which translated into construction of correspondingly large capacity reservoirs. An example of expansion in hydro-power plants is Nurek hydro-power plant, which produces approximately 3000 megawatts of electricity (Murodbek 266). The reservoir serving this power plant lies in the upper regions of Tajikistan, and remains as the largest reservoir in the region. On the other hand, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan started utilizing their fossil fuel resources in a manner contrary to economic strategy applied by the Moscow administration in the past. Shortage of oil and other mineral fuels demanded Tajikistan’s government to increase hydro-electric production in order to meet the nation’s energy demand. The lower stream nations presented their grievances to Tajikistan, but since they had failed in supplying oil back to the upper region, then their efforts to access enough water were futile. They had no bargaining power after failing to honor their agreement for mineral fuel sharing with their neighbors (Murodbek 264). In this case, there was a general discordance between the strategies for sharing resources, and economic practices adopted by independent nations in striving to achieve their national objectives. Therefore, intensive hydro-electric generation by nations within Central Asian region features as another cause of the water-energy crisis within the five-member states. Effects of the water-energy crisis within the region range from social, geo-political to economic predicaments. With respect to a social context, the crisis creates a significant level of human hardship within the five member state nations. Tajikistan is a nation which experiences the four seasons in a year. This means that substantial amount of energy is necessary for heating purposes during winter season. In this context, downstream nations like Uzbekistan have applied stringent measures demanding Tajikistan to maintain constant supply and allocation of water throughout the year (Murodbek 267). Winter seasons usually requires increased electricity production within the oil poor Tajikistan. However, efforts to increase electric generation through expansion of hydro-power plants will cause water shortage to nations on the lower end of the rivers. As a result, Tajikistan citizens’ experiences hardships related to lack of energy for home heating during winter season. Lack of electricity also effects economic sector when power regulations affects production industry. In winter, there is a competition between electricity supply to homes and that supplied to manufacturing firms. This means that shortage of power in industries affects production capacity, which in turn translates to negative economic consequences including lay-offs. In addition, divergence of water to irrigation firms by Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan leads to shortage of water in downstream nations like Kazakhstan, whose population depends on agriculture as their main economic activity in arid areas (Murodbek 268). Within the middle of winter, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan usually require large amount of river water for irrigating cotton and wheat farms. Since they lie at the upper stream of the two rivers, Syr Darya and Amu Darya, they will benefit from undisrupted water supply. However, farmers in Kazakhstan will face a severe shortage of irrigation water; hence leading to negative effects to agricultural sector. Profound effects on social and economic factors in the society can lead to eruption of geo-political difficulties between the affects nations. Political developments regarding the issue shows those leaders of all the affected nations are not willing to engage in constructive discussions. In the year 2009, negotiations of the effect of Tajikistan’s irregular allocation of water to downstream nations reached a dead end (Murodbek 265). This happened after neither president of Tajikistan nor any one from the affected nations could compromise. These effects of this resource related issue is usually felt during winter and summer seasons. In 2003, Central Asia was hit by a severe drought. This period almost witnessed a full scale conflict when the fight for irrigation water between the lower and upper nations failed to reach an agreement. Trends suggest that such happenings in the future could cause serious geo-political wrangles in the region. In the recent past, presidents of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have reverted into seeking external intervention for the problem (Murodbek 271). With respect to similar problems in other parts of the world, Egypt and North African states of Sudan have experienced similar water and energy crisis in the past. Egypt depends on the River Nile for irrigation of food crops and generation of electricity. The famous Aswan High dam serves approximately 70% of Egyptian electricity supply. The Nile originates from Lake Victoria in the East African region, and flows through Sudan into Egypt. Any interruption of water supply from the source, or on the course of the river’s channel results in a corresponding interruptions of water usage in Egypt (Tortajada and Biswas 34). In this regard, relevant government authorities between the affected nations have signed agreements meat to govern sharing of this precious resource. Egypt agrees to provide a constant supply of power to Northern Sudan, as long as the Khartoum government ensures uninterrupted water supply to Aswan High dam. In conclusion, the causes and effects of Central Asian crisis affects members of any region depending of the water resources discussed above. In this case, appropriate measures should be implemented to ensure minimization and even elimination of such effects from effected nations. Tajikistan could compromise on providing water supplies and venture into alternative ways of generating energy. On the other hand, nations on the lower regions like Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan would agree to share mineral fuels with their counterparts (Murodbek 279). Implementation of such strategies will ensure that economic and social activities remain free from influence of fluctuations in water supply. Work Cited Murodbek, Laldjebaev. The Water-Energy Puzzle in Central Asia: The Tajikistan Perspective. Singapore: University of Singapore Press, 2010. Print Tortajada, Cecilia and Biswas, Asit. Water as a human right for the Middle East and North Africa. Pittsburgh: Cengage Learning, 2008. Print Read More