Water Unites

Country
Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Tajikistan
Turkmenistan
Uzbekistan
Afghanistan
Water Stress
Index
(m³ per capita,
2007)
7 405
3 821
2 392
4 979
1 842
2 015
Rural Water Livelihoods
Index (RWLI),
rank from 1 (best situation)
to 158 (worst situation)
129
108
155
150
140
157
rural livelihoods and their links
with water provision. The index
includes four components: (1) services
component (access to water
and sanitation), (2) security component
(crop and livestock water),
(3) environment component (clean
and healthy water), (4) entitlement
component (secure and equitable
water). The table shows the ranks of
the Central Asian countries among
the 158 assessed countries. The two
up stream countries. Afghanistan
and Tajikistan, got the worst as -
sess ment among the Central Asian states. Concerning the different components, in all Central
Asian states apart from Turkmenistan, the entitlement component was assessed as being the
weakest one. In Tajikistan, it got only 12.83 points (of 100), one of the lowest in the world. In
contrast, in all states but Kazakhstan the security component was the best one, reaching more
than 70 and in Uzbekistan even 86 points (of 100). 18
This shows that water scar city is not a mere physical phenomenon, but also a result of
water consumption and water usage patterns and therefore of human management. This was
stated very clearly in the UNDP’s 2006 Human Development Re port, which was dedicated
to water: «The scarcity at the heart of the global water crisis is rooted in power, poverty and
equality, not in physical availability. (…) In many countries scarcity is the product of public
policies that have encouraged overuse of water through subsidies and underpricing. There is
more than enough water in the world for domestic purposes, agriculture and industry. The
problem is that some people-notably the poor-are systematically excluded from access by
their poverty, by their limited legal rights or by public policies. In short, scarcity is manufactured
through political processes and institutions (…).»
Political legacies:
conflicting usage interests of irrigation and energy production
In the Soviet Union, water and energy resources were managed in an integrated and topdown
approach. Water resources were used for the best Union-wide benefit, to which each
republic contributed. For Central Asia, the priority was cotton production, and therefore
the whole Central Asian water management system was oriented toward this goal. In this
respect, two important inter-republican governance mechanisms were established. One
is the water-energy exchange system among the republics and the other are the water
18 Sullivan et al. 2009.
26 Political legacies: conflicting usage interests of irrigation and energy production