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A HISTORY OF INNER ASIA

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Independent Central Asian Republics 293<br />

far been reluctant to accept their neighbor’s proposals to review the<br />

existing situation, a legacy of the Soviet era.Some have made the sensible<br />

proposal that the Karakum canal be eliminated altogether.Besides<br />

debilitating the Amu Darya, the canal also wastes much of the precious<br />

water because of primitive or mismanaged technology (most of its<br />

course lacks lining, hence considerable seepage or flooding in places<br />

where the water is not needed), a problem characteristic of many irrigation<br />

projects carried out in the Soviet period.<br />

Each of the five republics now has a new constitution that guarantees<br />

the familiar political and human rights as understood in terms of<br />

Western democracy, and although, as we have pointed out, the innovation<br />

has so far had little practical application, the stage is set.Meanwhile<br />

all five republics are struggling to survive the economic crisis brought<br />

about by the transition from central planning and state ownership to<br />

market economy and privatization.The struggle and its prospective<br />

outcome are inevitably affected by similar processes in other parts of the<br />

former Soviet Union, particularly the Russian Federation, but there are<br />

grounds for optimism.<br />

The area abounds in mineral and agricultural wealth; the value of<br />

Uzbekistan’s gold, copper, and zinc deposits has been estimated at $3<br />

trillion, and gold deposits in Kyrgyzstan appear promising; the aforementioned<br />

oil of Kazakhstan, natural gas of Turkmenistan, hydroelectric<br />

power of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, and cotton of Uzbekistan,<br />

Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan are other examples.An abundant and<br />

well-trained labor force and an advantageous geo-economic position<br />

(here again, the Silk Road may not be just a romantic saga 3 ) are the ideal<br />

complement to these natural assets.The problems, however, are also formidable.Aside<br />

from the birth pangs of a new system, the area faces two<br />

major challenges: ecological and demographic.The plight of the Aral<br />

Sea has become familiar to anyone following the news media, and it is<br />

only the most visible case of catastrophic abuse of water resources; the<br />

related ill effects of cotton monoculture propped up by chemical fertilizers<br />

and pesticides have attained similar notoriety.Total disregard of<br />

these dangers was one of the hallmarks of the Communist era (and not<br />

only in Central Asia; zones of pollution and moonscapes of man-made<br />

wasteland littered the rest of the empire and its satellites in Eastern<br />

Europe as well) and has become one of its worst legacies: for basic economic<br />

and psychological reasons, the solution of the problem will be<br />

3 See, however, our aforementioned qualifications.

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