Central Asians Consume 2.5 to 5 Times the Amount of Water Russians Do, Ecologists Say

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 2 – The debate on whether to divert water from Siberian rivers to Central Asia continues, but except for plans to use pipes rather than canals, little has changed since plans to do so were debated and shelved in Gorbachev’s time, the Kedr environmentalist portal says.

            But there is one major change that few have been talking about that suggests that, in the words of the portal, “no matter how much water comes from Siberia, it will not be enough” to solve Central Asia’s shortages (kedr.media/stories/skolko-by-vody-ni-prishlo-iz-sibiri-ee-budet-malo/).

            The reason, Kedr says, is that Central Asians use vastly more water per capita than do Russians because the former overuse water for agricultural uses and lose much because of inadequate distribution channels. Unless that changes, the situation is going to remain hopeless whatever Russia does.

            According to statistics the portal cites, Kazakhstan uses 3397 liters of water per person daily; Tajikistan, 4153;  Uzbekistan, 4778; and Turkmenistan, 15,445, figures 2.5 to five times more than in the Russian Federation. (The site does not give figures for Kyrgyzstann, but they are certainly above the Russian figure as well.)

            These disproportionate figures suggest that any talk about Siberian river diversion should end until the Central Asians do something about their over-consumption of water.