It
does not require much guesswork to see why the president of Kazakhstan
Nursultan Nazarbayev flew off to Johannesburg so hastily to attend the World
Summit on Sustainable Development. In view of the dying Aral Sea, the polluted
Caspian and other looming disasters he could not afford to miss the
opportunity to draw the attention of the world organizations to these dangers.
The
alarming news that the Aral Sea was desiccating rapidly caused a general
depression in early nineties. The five Central Asian nations set up an
international "Save the Aral" foundation. The original intention was
to work out a project to prevent the sea, commonly used for irrigation and
fish industry, from drying out. But that broad and blurry idea was never
materialized. It was also agreed that the main contributors - Uzbekistan,
Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan - would allocate 0.3% of their national budget to
the foundation. None of these states, however, met this commitment in full.
According to some sources in the years 1993-2001 contributions were
$12,980,000 less than was initially expected.
But
it does not mean that the efforts of the government to restore the ecological
balance in the area has not been supported financially. The aid came primarily
from the outside. For this year only, the International Bank of Reconstruction
and Development has earmarked $64,5 million for the project to save the part
of the sea known as the Minor Aral. The project also includes measures aimed
to restore the volume of the Syrdarya river basin.
While
experts try hard to find out the exact cause of the Aral Sea irretrievably
turning into a desert with every passing day, Central Asian states put the
blame on each other. Amudarya and Syrdarya rivers have been feeding the Aral
Sea for thousands of years. The water from the rivers were abundantly used to
irrigate cotton fields in Uzbekistan. Rice plantations in Kyzylorda also
depend on the Aral Sea for water. Faulty management in both countries led to
the dramatic reduction of river
water flowing into the sea, which is
retreating alarmingly fast leaving behind vast wasteland and causing hitherto
unknown diseases. Infant mortality in Kyzylorda region, located in the area,
is the highest in the country. Until recently, the region had a thriving fish
industry. Kazakakhstan earned huge amounts of money from the export of fish
and caviar, but fish-processing plants for the most part stand idle today.
Every
nation in Central Asia is understandably striving to gain a stronger influence
over water resources of the region. In this situation, it is almost
inconceivable for them to find a solution which would please everyone. At a
conference in Tashkent in spring 2000, some participants proposed to divert
Siberian rivers to feed the Aral Sea. The idea was met with almost unanimous
protest from environmental activists and experts who warned that such plans
would generate a new disaster.
Another
source of worry in Kazakhstan, some analysts maintain, is likely to be
Afghanistan. Cynical as it may sound, the end of the war there forebodes
nothing good for residents of the poverty-stricken Aral area. They fear that
Afghan farmers, as soon as they lay down their arms arms, may start using
Amudarya and Syrdarya rivers extensively for irrigation purposes aggravating
the already acute water shortage problem.
Given
this complicated tangle of political controversies and selfish economic
interests around the Aral Sea, it seems, it would be wise for all parties
involved to work out a feasible common strategy. Foreign money, which keeps
flowing in, is not likely to work wonders unless public control is established
over their use.
The
prevailing mood is probably best described by Kayrat Ibrahimov of the public
movement "Aral Sea": "Foreigners, like our ministers, come and
go. But we are here to stay, in the land of our ancestors. If we really want
to save the Aral, we must take
its fate into our own hands". Bureaucracy, red tape and corruption,
however, seem to be stronger than the will of common people.
Marat
Yermukanov, Kazakhstan