Only Revival of Siberian River Diversion Plans Can Solve Central Asia’s Growing Water Shortages, Nazarov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 15 – Even if the countries of Central Asia find the two billion US dollars in outside assistance they need to improve their water distribution systems and even if they do everything right and cooperate with one another, Ravshan Nazarov says, they won’t be able to solve their water problems.

            The only realistic approach, the expert at Uzbekistan’s Institute of State and Law says,  is to “return to the idea of the transfer of part of the excess flow of Siberian rivers to Central Asia” (podrobno.uz/cat/economic/krupnye-investitsii-i-sibirskie-reki-chto-nuzhno-uzbekistanu-dlya-resheniya-vodnogo-voprosa/).

            According to Nazarov, “no measures at all will be sufficient to save the water sector of Central Asia in only ten to twenty years because the volumes of water in the region are falling while the population is growing and water consumption  for domestic, industrial and agricultural needs are increasing alongside them.”

            And he has told the leaders of the region’s counties, “the only real project is to return to the Siberian river diversion project,” which the Soviet leadership rejected in the years before the end of the Soviet Union. Unless water from this source comes to Central Asia, “it is pointless to talk about the use of any water-saving technologies in the region.”

            Nazarov’s words are the latest and most blunt of the rising tide of calls to revive the Siberian river diversion project with Central Asians increasingly saying that Moscow must agree or lose influence and control in the region because of the humanitarian disaster that will occur if water shortages in Central Asia intensify.

            For background on this, see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2023/12/russia-must-divert-siberian-river-water.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2023/10/failure-to-divert-siberian-river-water.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2023/08/climate-change-and-ukraine-war-may.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2023/02/russia-must-revive-siberian-river.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2022/07/omsk-social-chamber-leader-seeks-to.html and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2021/06/moscow-urged-to-revive-siberian-river.html.