Water is currently a politics!

According to the United Nations Organization, a rise of the sweet water consumption, caused by the demographic growth, population mobility, new demands, and increased urge for energy, together with the pronounced effects of the climatic change, lead to the growing shortage of water resources.

Problems of international security taken in connection with the inevitable aggravation of the global sweet water shortage become increasingly topical. People are concerned with the possibility of grave international conflicts emerging for the lack of water. One can’t rule out such possibility in full. Disputes for water in transboundary rivers are not rare, and there are surely grounds for local collisions. It is clear that matters of settlement of intergovernmental water relations are of more than topical importance for any country.

For example, the grave problem of the transboundary Central Asian rivers is not only an economic and ecologic determinant, but also a strategic one, being a security factor in the regional states. Today, even a layman in politics understands that it is water which may serve a “favorable soil” for the emergence of the regional conflict between the adjacent countries.

By way of illustration, a situation with the lack of water, first of all, for the purposes of agriculture in various regions of neighboring Kazakhstan is furthered by the sustained growth of water take from transboundary rivers for economic purposes of the adjacent countries (China, Kirghizia and Uzbekistan), whose territory hosts upper reaches of these rivers. These circumstances are also aggravated by the fact that many aspects of using transboundary rivers have remained unsettled and disputable at the international level by now.

The complex situation with the watercourse in the Syrdarya River, feeding the Aral-Syrdarya basin, made Kazakhstan authorities to build the Koksarayskoe man-made pool to add to the Shardarinskoe water reservoir. The matter is that the valley of the Syrdarya River is a source of water and hydro energy for four states: Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kirghizia and Tajikistan. While Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan use the Syrdarya River for irrigation, for Kirghizia the priority value of the river is to obtain electric energy from the watercourse of the Naryn River which, at merging with Karadarya, forms the Syrdarya River. In the summer period, the cascade of Kirghiz hydropower plants located along the course of the Naryn River accumulates water in man-made pools so that in winters, they have a possibility to increase the drain for generation of additional electric energy at the decrease in takes of melt water from glaciers. At that, demands of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan which lie lower along the watercourse, go to counter-phase with the Kirghiz actions – to irrigate arable lands, they need water supply in the dry summer period…

This conflict of interests generated the water crisis in the region where Kazakhstan appeared to be in the “loser” state, as it is located downstream-most. The acuteness of the problem of dividing the Syrdarya River water resources is confirmed by the fact that during the last two years, the parties failed to reach an agreement on volumes of water intake. Nevertheless, early in this year, the International Water Economic Commission managed to agree on norms of water consumption for 2011 year, although the question about the observance of these commitments by the upper reach states remains open.

However, whereas the dialogue with ex-Soviet republics goes even in some form, talks with China are much less dynamic. Permanently, matters of water take volume and quality of water coming back to the Cherny Irtysh and Ili Rivers, which is polluted with pesticides and industrial waste, arise, but there is no progress save monitoring.

According to observations of the Russian and Kazakhstan experts, the water economic situation in the Irtysh basin has worsened sharply over the last years. The complete shoaling of the river, breaches of hydraulic and hydro-chemical regime, surge of fish reserves, and decrease of the water quality take place; the natural bottomland and coastal environment degrade.

All this is the result of uncontrolled anthropogenic actions of China to withdraw the part of the watercourse of the Cherny Irtysh River by means of closure and aggressive construction of various channels to the part of Xinjiang, initially in the amount of 1 cubic kilometer, and then up to 5 cubic kilometers per year that makes up 12 % of the total yearly drain of the Irtysh River and further aggravates the situation in the basin, especially in the subjacent Russian regions. At that, according to calculations by experts, in the nearest future, due to the separate Chinese politics of super-normative water take, which is non-agreed with Russia and Kazakhstan and is aimed at getting maximum economic effect, the water level in the river will decrease from the optimum regime; e.g., in the area of Omsk city, by 1.2 meters!

As for today, the contractual-legal basis regulation the cooperation between Kazakhstan and Russia, on the one hand, and China, on the other, in the field of using water resources of the Ob-Irtysh basin bears a declarative and general character and does not answer contemporary realities in full.

Speaking at the Forum of the Inter-Regional Cooperation between Russia and Kazakhstan, held in Orenburg, President Dmitry Medvedev said, “Regarding the preservation and recuperation of the rivers, I mean Cherny Irtysh, Tobol, and Ural, the situation is actually complicated. We must engage in this problem, having in mind our common responsibility before the future generations. …If we do not start working on this topic fundamentally, the degradation of the stream canal and degradation of the entire basin in general will occur further. Therefore one needs to think over joint programs. But thereat we, of course, must involve in the work our neighbors who bear joint and severable liability with us for the environmental situation. I mean our partners from the People’s Republic of China...”

The Russian-Kazakhstan relations have entered a new period of development – the trade-economic, cultural, and humanitarian cooperation is in progress, including that between frontier regions of the countries, economic integration within the framework of the Customs Union, and the International Coordination Council “Our Common Home is Altai” functioning is a success. All these processes create real prerequisites for the resumption of work to settle relations between the Ob-Irtysh basin countries, including: within the framework of the international normative space, to exert influence on the Chinese stance on the matter of reasonable use and protection of the water resources for the benefit of the states located in the lower reach of the Irtysh River.

Until now, China accompanied all actions taken on transboundary rivers with the representations that “China will avoid national egoism in this issue” and “it will never undertake measures infringing the interests of the bordering countries,” however, in practice, the water intake from the upper reaches of the Irtysh and Ili Rivers grows and has hit the critical threshold even by now. The reluctance of the Chinese side to enter uncomfortable trilateral negotiations among Russia, Kazakhstan, and China on the division of the Irtysh waters alerts. In this connection, one is to hope for wisdom of our Chinese neighbors.