Kyrgyz Paper Urges Compromise on Energy, Water Issues in Central Asia

A Kyrgyz paper says Central Asian states should reach a compromise on energy and water issues. It says that Central Asian countries still have not come to an agreement on the joint use of water resources in the region and their relations on this issue are becoming more complicated. The following is an excerpt from an article by Dina Maslova entitled: “A box with valuables on a powder keg”, published by the Kyrgyz newspaper Vecherniy Bishkek on 1 August; subheadings inserted editorially:

Currently, the most demanded commodity is not oil, but a kilowatt or a joule of energy, which is governing the world more effectively than the dollar. It is not by chance that Central Asia is called a box with jewels locked in the centre of the continent. There is also a gun powder keg waiting to go off

talks on the water resources management are still being dragged on. A state ideology at the heart of which is water is naturally developing in these states.

[Passage omitted: shortage of water is causing concern in the world community]

The fact that there are fuel resources in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, will by no means protect these states from possible energy crises. The past cold winter, which created a crisis situation in all states of the region, has shown this. You must not forget that production is gradually growing there and this will also cause a shortage of electricity. Taking into account the worn-out equipment of energy producing enterprises, the countries, which have fuel resources must be interested in supporting the construction of new hydroenergy capacities. That is why the construction of hydropower stations in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan will raise the stability of the economies of all Central Asian states. However, cooperation will yield results if the states act as one team. It has to be said that a thought that the depletion of energy resources will take place in the foreseeable future, but, one the other hand, there is a desire to live here and now, is giving rise to political egotism. It should be said that genuine politicians’ role is to look a little ahead than the current days.

Energy war

The energy crisis which emerged in Tajikistan this winter, when almost 600 Tajik enterprises came to a standstill and the work of the country’s main industrial company the aluminium giant Talco – was partly suspended, was a serious sign. However, not all leaders of other states think that “the ice age” may also come to other countries.

However, Russia, the USA and China appeared to be more far- sighted. A joint statement by the [former] Russian and Uzbek presidents, Vladimir Putin and Islom Karimov [respectively], on the use of transborder rivers came as a bolt from the blue. It has become clear that Uzbekistan is making efforts to block not only Tajikistan’s ambitious energy projects, specifically the Roghun hydroelectric power station and another power station on the River Zarafshon, but it is also trying to find an ally in the person of Russia. After all, if a hydroelectric power station is commissioned, Dushanbe will get the powerful leverage on neighbouring Tashkent. Experts are even making guesses at whose powerful hands the leverage will be in Central Asia.

The so-called heavy-weight states have waged an original energy war, making contracts and investments in the “southern directions” and weaving a web around the energy sector of the region. In order to come out of communication isolation, our states are trying to link Afghanistan and Pakistan to the power generation circle, which makes it possible to use real levers contributing to economic and political independence. We, in one team with Tajiks, are establishing contact with these two states, hoping to send the first electricity flow through the network by 2011.

[Passage omitted: water may become a reason for conflicts between neighbours]

I am afraid that if external players want to destabilize the situation in Asia, they can use water supply issues. Even the EU which is quite far from the region is making efforts to unite independent Central Asian states by setting up a water and energy academy in Bishkek. The best brains of fraternal people, according to Europeans’ ideas, must search for ways to solve the problem so that the next generation does not die of thirst, hunger or poverty. They look rather further in developed countries: if the situation in Central Asia destabilizes, dire consequences of the shortage of water may reach them. That is why, Europe already today wants to teach us water diplomacy. However, I reiterate that the leaders of [Central Asian] states consider the valuable moisture to be a political lever.

Need for compromise

A compromise can be reached if the hydroelectric power stations located in the upper reaches discharge water in summer in exchange for the supply of gas and coal in winter. This is beneficial to both sides, because a rather big discharge of water in winter to cover the shortage of energy can cause serious flooding. It seems to be so simple. Nevertheless, the four states have not come to an agreement over the past many years, although the situation is worsening by the season. As a result, relations between the Central Asian states on the use of water resources are becoming more complicated. Afghanistan and complicated relations between China and Kazakhstan due to the issue of management of the flow of the upper reaches of the River Irtysh have recently added to this problem. The settlement of the issues of joint use of water and energy resources in Central Asia states is not moving further than statements, and has got stuck on the national egotism of each state. What is also adding to the problem is that the number of glaciers feeding most of the region’s rivers, has fallen by 25-30 per cent over the past 20 years.

A clear example of unwillingness to make a concession was the supply of 400,000 kWh electricity from Kyrgyzstan to Kazakhstan on 11 July. We could use the proceeds from this (4.5 cent per kWh) to cover 40 per cent of the expenses of the maintenance of the Bishkek heating and power plant. However, the question at issue is that water should run through the transit territory of neighbouring Uzbekistan before reaching the destination [Kazakhstan]. However, Uzbekistan did not discharge water in violation of the agreement. Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister had to send a notification to his Uzbek counterpart, Rustam Azimov. The situation with water supplies began to remind us of reports from hot stops. Fortunately, the problem was resolved. However, our government’s expectation that the critical situation would make everyone to reach a consensus seems to be evaporating because August is already approaching.

Water turning into national ideology

Kyrgyzstan dreams of declaring water a commodity, deservedly demanding neighbouring states that they make adequate payment for it. After all, we greatly depend on fuel resources and also need electricity and have a backward economy. However, Bishkek’s calls for stepping back from a restricted national model of management have not yielded results. Unfortunately our political weight is still not sufficient to draw serious attention of the countries with gas and oil to our government’s vain attempts. On the other hand, they are skilfully conducting a propaganda campaign. The whole point of the information war is packed up into an axiom: water is common [wealth], but fuel and other resources are strictly national [wealth]. For example, a recent statement by the deputy Uzbek minister of agriculture and water management, Shavkat Hamrayev, was also based on this [axiom]. He believes that our country is violating the international law on transborder rivers by using the Toktogul water reservoir to produce electricity, which will [allegedly] result in serious water management and environmental consequences in his country. They in the neighbouring country are also fuming over a statement made by our government, which believes that the melting of glaciers should be used strictly in the national interests.

[Passage omitted: gas prices may rise in future; Kyrgyzstan is losing the information war]

As a result, you can see how one country makes efforts to save its resources and the other lodges claims. However, it is not the guilt of a country if it is with rich water resources endowed by the nature and its neighbours do not have that. Do you imagine what would have happen if Kyrgyzstan recalled Adam and Eve and that we are all brothers, and begun to fuel the spiral of the conflict declaring oil and gas fields to be common? Why not to share subsurface fuel resources which Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan have in exchange for water they need?

Or do the neighbours proceed from the fact that unlike fuel resources, water resources do not have futures or auctions to trade at world stock exchanges?

Meanwhile, the politics is becoming more isolated from ordinary people. At the level of an ordinary consumer, water, as the simple formula of H2O, is evolving and turning into a national ideology.

Originally published by Vecherniy Bishkek, Bishkek, in Russian 1 Aug 08 p 7.

(c) 2008 BBC Monitoring Central Asia. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.