Curb vast water use in central Asia

摘要

Shipwrecks rusting in the desert have come to symbolize the environmental havoc that has befallen the Aral Sea, which straddles Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. More than 90% of what was once the fourth-largest lake in the world has vanished in half a century. The cracked shores are symptoms of the dramatic overuse of water in central Asia. Since the 1960s, 70% of Turkmenistan has become desert, and half of Uzbekistan's soil has become salty owing to dust blown from the dry bed of the Aral Sea. The republics of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan were developed as farming states to supply produce to the former Soviet Union. Today, they are among the highest per capita users of water in the world - on average, each Turkmen consumes 4 times more water than a US citizen, and 13 times more than a Chinese one (see 'Top 20 consumers'). More than 90% of the regions water use is irrigating thirsty crops including cotton and wheat.