International Water Management in the Aral Sea Basin

Abstract

ABSTRACT The collapse of the Soviet Union in late 1991 has created five new states in the Aral Sea basin in Central Asia. In addition to the turmoil resulting from this political change, this section of the Aral Sea basin suffers from serious environmental degradation, including the desiccation of the Aral Sea itself This situation has arisen from the Soviet government's decision to develop the region as a center for cotton production from the early 1960s onward, a policy requiring heavy applications of agricultural chemicals and enormous irrigation diversions from the basin's two main rivers. the Amu and Syr Darya. Consequently the jive new states in the region have inherited a complex environmental and water management problem from a time when this part of the basin was managed by a singlegovernment. Any attempts to ameliorate the serious environmental degradation found in some parts of the basin now requires cooperation between the new states. This article reports on the measures taken by the new states and their likelihood of success. Overall, it appears that while the new states have enshrined valuable concepts of cooperation in their international water treaties, these concepts do not, as yet, appear to be supported either with adequate funding or with sufficient legislation at the national level.