Simon and Garfunkel, we need you

It’s all about water this week. Something that, in Scotland, we usually feel we have more than enough of and something we rather take for granted. We like it in the lochs, in the bathroom and in very small quantities in Scotch. We don’t like it in the tent, in our wellies and falling from the skies in August. Here in Tajikistan – and in most of the world - it is a matter of life and death.

..with secret ingredient

Dushanbe hosted an International Conference for the Year of Water Co-operation earlier this week. I know you’re all saying “how could I have missed that”? Well you probably did, but it was a big deal here. The traffic police were all given new white shirts (probably washed in Barf, a local detergent brand that is unlikely to make it big in the U.S.). The fountains were all turned up full blast. The main roads were all shut for hours on end as delegates were whisked around aquatic events. It’s important here, because Tajikistan has water!

Tajikistan is a bit of the poor relation amongst the “stans”. It might have the tallest flag pole in the world but this is a poor consolation compared to the oil and gas reserves in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. But the country does have water. As you sweep east across the steppes from the Urals it’s pretty flat and dry for hundreds of miles. Then you hit this wall of mountains rising to over 7,000 metres - think of putting 5 Ben Nevis’s on top of each other and then add some. Clouds rise and become rain then snow then glaciers… that’s a lot of water tumbling down.

Downtown Dushanbe yesterday

The western Pamirs

What to do with it? There’s only so much you can put in Scotch (and somewhat less than average in a muslim country). You can drink it, raft in it, irrigate with it and – coming from such a height – make hydro-electric power with it. You need to manage it.

Tajikistan already has the highest dam in the world at Nurek but the key issue now is the idea of a new, bigger, better dam at Rogun. This could guarantee a rosy future for the country with reliable water and electricity supplies and lots of electricity for export which could go, for example, to Afghanistan to help build the economy and aid regional stability. That’s all good then! Everyone’s happy. Lots of money for Tajiks, cheap electricity for the country’s neighbours, prosperity, regional peace…..

Not so fast. As you know, building a dam means interfering with nature’s water distribution – i.e. blocking rivers. In particular, building Rogun would threaten the water supplies down the mighty Vakhsh river to Uzbekistan. Uzbeks are less than enthusiastic about this. The Uzbek President is quoted as saying, with characteristic subtlety, that such developments can lead to wars. The border between the two countries – close cultural and ethnic neighbours for centuries – has been closed since the end of 2010.

This is what the water conference is about. Do we build a dam or not? An intensely political question with no easy answer but one that is going to resonate around the world in the years ahead, and not just in relation to Central Asia. Dams on the upper Nile have always been controversial. What now about dams in the Himalayas that will affect the burgeoning economies of India and China? Who owns the water streaming from the Andes? Future international tensions are less likely to be about energy supplies or race or even religion and more about our most precious commodity, water.

 It’s not clear that any new agreements were reached at the Dushanbe water conference but maybe it’s worth “barfing” our shirts and diverting the traffic if it at least gets people talking about one of the most important elements of life, especially if it stops future generations fighting wars over it.