[The Soviets emptied the Aral Sea trying to water this salty desert. Maintaining the country's primary agricultural product, cotton, wastes what little water manages to reach Uzbekistan through the Central Asian river systems, helping to raise Islam Karimov's anger with Tajikistan over proposed Rogun Dam project, which will strangle Uzbek cotton production for several years. One of the biggest problems of the CIS countries is switching over from communist-era systems to more modern and efficient models of production or transmission systems, whether that be gas, water, electrical, or highway. The answer for Uzbekistan is not better irrigation systems, but a better means of producing national profit.
If the order of the day is to actually to help the citizens of Central Asia, as a pathway to obtaining their gas and oil, then we will produce something on the order of a Central Asian Marshall Plan. Then you get into the sticky business of saying--"What about Afghanistan and Pakistan reconstruction?" Or, for that matter, "What Iraq or Libya?" Every nation on this earth, with few exceptions, needs a hand-up into the Twenty-First Century. Do we start in Central Asia, now? Or do we do nothing at all to help the people recover from decades of wasteful destruction and division? There is a line that has been carved right down the middle of humanity--cut there by the genius Washington and Moscow planners. How do we mend that rift in humanity?
A simple problem like an antiquated irrigation system can be traced all the way back to the Cold War. The damage that mankind does by blindly following blind leaders remains invisible until the shadow of the past passes over something that we want or think that we need today. Such are the problems that cover both the "Silk Road" and "Pipelinestan."]
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/world/asia/15uzbek.html?pagewanted=all
http://therearenosunglasses.wordpress.com/2011/08/03/washingtons-silk-road-pipe-dream/
Poor irritation practices, growing population and climatic change all signal a worrisome scenario on the food security front in Uzbekistan, according to a study conducted by Tashkent’s Centre for Economic Research, Uzbekreport.com reported.
The study was supported by the Asian Development Bank and the United Nations Development Programme. ldus Kamilov, senior research coordinator on the project said, “Water resources are being depleted not only by global warming, but also by the inefficient irrigation systems being used by Uzbekistan’s agricultural producers.”
He claimed that half of the water which could tapped for irrigation is lost and he suggested channels and pumping stations to alleviate the losses. According to Kamilov, a significant proportion of cultivated land in Uzbekistan is irrigated but research shows that 70% of Uzbekistan’s land is not suitable for agricultural production as the land is desert, steppe, or mountainous or soil salinity is too high....
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