Water Unites

and «a vivid testament to what (...) happens when we waste our common natural resources,
when we neglect our environment, when we mismanage our environment.» 9
In the 1970s, the ecological consequences of the massive agricultural expansion began to
emerge: the shrinking of the Aral Sea, attendant desertification, the salinization of growing
fields, water pollution by fertilizers and pesticides and water shortages in downstream
areas. Some scholars in the Central Asian Soviet Republics started to carefully criticize
wasteful water usage. The initial response was a perfect example of the Soviet belief in
the supremacy of technology over nature. Instead of trying to increase the system’s efficiency,
Soviet officials drafted plans to divert water from the north-flowing Siberian rivers
Ob and Irtysh southward to Central Asia, where it would be used for irrigation and to
refill the Aral Sea. The project enjoyed wide support among Central Asian water officials,
but it also faced opposition. The plans were shelved in 1986, not because of the emerging
environmental criticism, but because of the high costs. A few years later, after the famous
«Aral-88» field mission in 1988 10 , the Soviet government changed its approach and issued
a decree on the improvement of the ecological situation in the Aral Sea Basin. It foresaw a
reduction of new land reclamation and a reduction of water supply for irrigation areas by
30%. It was met by fierce resistance locally. Finally, the decree ordered only the reduction
of water usage per hectare in the Aral Sea Basin by at least 15% by 1990 and by 25% by 2000.
However, with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the decree became obsolete, though the
idea of diverting rivers from Siberia continues to be revived from time to time. 11
With the growing attention paid to the Aral Sea disaster, increased environmental
awareness and glasnost, some institutional changes in water management were introduced
in the 1980s. In order to better regulate the water distribution among the Central
Asian Republics, a system of water quotas for the two great rivers was established (see
table). These limited the amount of water each republic was allowed to use.
In addition, two river basin agencies (BVOs, basseynovaya vodnkhozyaystvennaya
organisatsiya) for the Amu Darya and Syr Darya under the central MinVodKhoz
were established and started working in 1988. They were put in charge of the entire
rivers, regardless of administrative boundaries among republics or provinces. However,
Uzbekistan
Turkmenistan Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan
Amu Darya
Syr Darya
48.2% 35.7% – 0.6% 15.5%
50.5% – 42.0% 0.5% 7.0%
Water quotas in the Aral Sea Basin. Note: Afghanistan was not included in the arrangement
9 Giese 1998, Micklin 2006, Sehring 2007.
10 This expedition was organized by two journals and headed by the journalist Grigor I. Reznichenko. Almost
30 journalists, writers and scholars from Moscow and Central Asia, plus a representative of the prosecution and
one of the Union-MinVodKhoz travelled through the whole basin for two months. The expedition helped to raise
union-wide awareness of the Aral Sea crisis. See Obertreis 2011.
11 Obertreis 2011, Sehring 2002.
22 Water usage and water management in the Soviet Union