Water Unites

The second important inter-republican governance mechanism was the establishment of
the water-energy exchange system among the republics. As explained above, in the two
upstream Kyrgyz and Tajik SSRs, huge reservoirs were constructed in order to store the
water until it was needed in the downstream countries for irrigation. The original aim of
the attached hydropower plants was only to provide energy in peak times, while the regular
needs were covered by the unified energy system. Since independence, this has changed.
The unified energy system broke down, and downstream states demanded market prices
for their energy fossils. As a consequence, the upstream states have increasingly been using
the dams for hydropower generation in order to cover their domestic energy needs.
Hydropower production is a non-consumptive water usage; the regulation in this
case does not have to address the general amount of water withdrawal (like the quota
system), but instead has to determine the time and seasonal amount of water release from
the dams. This is a contested task, as there is a trade-off between water needs for irrigation
and for hydropower production. Water is needed for irrigation purposes during the
growing period in spring and summer, while energy needs are highest in winter. Thus,
while the downstream states of Kazakhstan, Turk me nistan, and Uzbekistan especially
need water for irrigated agriculture, the upstream sta tes of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan
need the energy produced by water discharge in winter. Due to a lack of working management
mechanisms, these rival usage interests have caused irrigation water shortages
downstream as well as energy shortages upstream in recent years.
The Soviet legacy thus brought up two questions that had to be addressed by the
new states: How to share water concerning the quantity of water withdrawals, and how to
share water concerning the timing of water releases.
i Reconciling food security and energy security –
mission impossible?
The reservoirs built along the major rivers in Central Asia are designed to manage water flow
by releasing water exactly when it’s needed. In the Soviet Union, these reservoirs were built
mostly to manage irrigation water more effectively. After the break-up of the Soviet Union and
its integrated water-energy exchange system, the upstream countries changed the working
regime of these reservoirs gradually to meet their winter energy needs. Thus, less water is left
to be released during spring and summer, when irrigation needs peak flow.
This has led to the perception that the needs of the two sectors-agriculture and energy
production-are incompatible in their water demand and that energy security in the upstream
countries is only achievable at the cost of food insecurity downstream.
But is this perception really necessary? Hydropower production is a non-consumptive
use of water. This means that once it is discharged, it can be used for other purposes. Cascades
of dams and reservoirs allow for multiple usage of water. Once it has been discharged and produced
energy, water can be stored in another reservoir further downstream until needed for
28 Political legacies: conflicting usage interests of irrigation and energy production