he situation in the Aral Sea region of Central Asia and the problems facing the agricultural sector and the region's people, in general, are the subject of discussion in an article published by the Russian newspaper 'Nezavisimaya Gazeta' on 3rd November. Lack of funding, inefficient use of water resources and high concentrations of minerals in the soil are some of the problems listed in the article with particular focus on Karakalpakstan of Uzbekistan. The following are excerpts of the article published in the newspaper `Nezavisimaya Gazeta' on 3rd November:

Tashkent-Nukus-Takhtakupyr - Today, almost 500m people in the world suffer from diseases caused by the shortage or poor quality of drinking water...

Most of Karakalpakstan's population are not aware of this information, of course, but this year brought them face to face with the fact that survival in the Aral region is becoming increasingly difficult. The Aral Sea, whose "legal" waters - currents of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya - have been unceremoniously diverted for purposes of irrigation, seems to be on the brink of disaster...

There are not many people in Karakalpakstan today who remember the Aral before it lost half of its mirror surface. And absolutely no one is seriously thinking about rescuing it. This is understandable. After all, today we must think about rescuing those who despite all the problems continue to live here, in a zone of most profound ecological crisis. And as though we did not have enough difficulty up until now, this year brought a drought. A drought the likes of which has not been seen in these parts in the past 100 years. Currents in the Amu Darya are flowing at the 50 per cent level and Karakalpakstan has received just 35 per cent of average annual volumes. And this comes after Uzbek water management specialists have done everything possible to equitably distribute the scanty water intake.

We travel to Takhtakupyr, the northernmost region of Karakalpakstan, which used to be famous for its rice growing. We look through the windows of our vehicle at the barren land spotted with desert salt, areas of dirty-grey grass, stunted bushes, and sparse, emaciated trees. Now and again we cross a main irrigation canal. It holds no water. We see only cracked, dry earth.

The landscape changes and we begin to observe farmland. Rice paddies. But even here there is not a drop of water. Just dry, barren soil. Nothing grows on it - not even weeds. Is it possible rice was grown here at one time?

We travel on, knowing that a lake lies ahead that was formed by water discharges from the rice fields over many years. These fields cover a huge region - three times the area of France. This autumn collective farmers whose lands lie adjacent to the shores of the lake decided for the first time to try to return this water to the fields. No, we have not seen spring crops, cotton, or rice growing here, but perhaps they can successfully harvest winter crops? True, this will be the crop of 2001.

I Meet Farm Director Samsysbay Abashev

"The water in this lake has a fairly strong mineral content, of course, but not so much as to cause us to abandon our endeavour," Samsysbay says. "Our plans call for irrigating and planting somewhere around 250 hectares of winter crops. But our pump is old and often breaks down. So apparently we will not be able to cover more than 120-150 hectares."

According to Abashev, about 3,000 hectares of rice are usually sown here. This year everything went to the dogs. Indebtedness to creditors comes to about 400m soms. All hope lies with the state. The government has promised to provide assistance...

A great deal of damage has been inflicted on Karakalpakstan's agricultural sector, the main industry of the local economy. In nine of the northern regions, as well as in the virgin lands of the southern regions, all the rice crops and up to 90 per cent of the remaining food crops have perished. Only two-thirds of the planned level of cotton harvest has been gathered.

We see a sharp deterioration of the financial state of agricultural enterprises and proprietary farmsteads. The total damage amounts to 14.7 bn soms ($50.6m). Due to cotton and rice crop losses, industrial production volume at processing enterprises will be 17.9bn soms ($61.7m) less than the planned level.

The 305,000 rural inhabitants of these regions (49,000 families) find themselves without any basic source of income - wages, payments in kind, or produce from personal plots. As grazing lands have dried up and feed grasses have disappeared, cattle are dying. They must be slaughtered prematurely and sold at a low price.

Over half the population of Karakalpakstan uses water from open reservoirs that are filled from irrigation canals. This water has high mineral content and high level of bacteriological contamination.

The quality of water in the open reservoirs is deteriorating with each passing year. Some 93 per cent of samples taken do not meet the established chemical standards, while 30 per cent do not meet bacteriological standards. This year many population centres, especially those in remote areas, have not even had this water. Water has been delivered over long distances and distributed based on the norm of 12-15 litres per person per day.

The sanitary-epidemiological situation remains adverse. Over the first seven months of this year, 11 "El-Tor" cholera bacilli and 540 quasi-cholera bacilli were identified in the main channels which simultaneously constitute sources of drinking water...

In truth - and this has become entirely evident during the scarce-water period of this year - the attention devoted to water conservation matters in Uzbekistan continues today to be inadequate. For example, the figure for daily per capita consumption of drinking water in Tashkent is 530 litres, in other words, almost twice the level observed in other major cities of the world. It is hardly reasonable in this instance to take pride in the fact that Tashkent "holds first place on the planet". After all, this testifies primarily to the fact that there is a lack of measuring instruments, the water supply system is worn out, and the rate system in effect is flawed. As a result, a significant quantity of water is lost or used for other than its intended purpose.

We see ineffective use of water resources in agriculture, first and foremost in the lands under irrigation, where about 90 per cent of water resources are expended.

According to information from the Tashkent institute Vodoproyekt, only 40 per cent of the water actually reaches the plants. Another 40 per cent is lost in the irrigation system and about 20 per cent disappears during the irrigation process.

At the same time, according to expert assessments, water usage will increase over the next 20 years by approximately 40 per cent. In order to produce a sufficient quantity of food in view of the increasing population, 17 per cent more water will be required. In addition, we will see an increased water consumption requirement for industry, where the growth figures will range from 20 to 50 per cent.

Top

he upper chamber of the Kyrgyz parliament has decided to launch an inquiry into the incident in August 1999 when Uzbek missiles hit a village in southern Kyrgyz Batken Region, Kyrgyz TV reported on 7th November.

The Uzbek missiles then destroyed several houses and livestock in the Kara-Teyit village during combat operations against a group of Islamic militants.

"The deputies of the Legislative Assembly of the Kyrgyz parliament have taken interest in the progress of the inquiry into the Kara-Teyit tragedy, when peaceful residents became victims of air strikes by the Uzbek air force. Following heated debates, a resolution was adopted to set up a commission to inquire into the causes of the tragedy," the report said.

Top

he trial of Uzbek Islamic opposition leaders, Tohir Yoldosh and Juma Namangoniy, the opposition Erk Democratic Party leader, Mohammad Solih, and other nine members of these organizations continued today at the Uzbek Supreme Court, Uzbek TV reported. The three opposition leaders are being tried in their absence.

The TV showed a young man behind bars, identified as Zayniddin Asqarov, who is currently serving a prison term for his involvement in the bomb attacks in Tashkent in 1999, giving evidence against Tohir Yoldosh and Muhammad Solih.

He said: "Each time we met, Salay Madaminov [Mohammad Solih] and Tohirjon [Yoldosh] would argue about democracy, nationalism or Shari'ah [law]. Mohammad Solih used to talk about the need to set up a state of Turan. `We are nationalists,' he would say. Tohirjon would say that we should set up a Shari'ah state. Sometime they quarreled, other times they were speaking calmly. But their aim, the aim of the both, was to eliminate the existing system in Uzbekistan, and either to catch [Uzbek] President Karimov alive or to kill him through a terrorist act. They would argue about this many times."

The report said that Zayniddin Asqarov had been Tohir Yoldosh's envoy in Istanbul and he had used to organize meetings between Tohir Yoldosh, Salay Madaminov and Juma Namangoniy. The three are said to have met a total of 17 times.

"As has turned out, Tohir Yoldosh and his accomplices, by uniting all kinds of nationalists in Central Asia, were going to set up a coalition government in Uzbekistan, and later, with the help of the world's terrorist No 1, [Saudi dissident] Usamah Bin Laden and Khatab [Arab Islamic fighter], to declare jihad [holy war] on Uzbekistan and conquer it," the TV said.

Top

Japanese company, Mitsubishi, has allocated 234m dollars to upgrade a thermoelectric power plant in central Uzbek Navoi Region, the `Pravda Vostoka' newspaper reported on 7th November.

As part of the modernization plan, the plant will be fit out with modern equipment from Russia worth over 2m dollars, the report said, adding that it has also started to introduce new equipment for chemical purification of water. The plant is the fourth biggest power plant in Uzbekistan, the paper said.

Top

popular Uzbek FM radio station, Sezam, has gone back on the air after a "technical break", the 'Pravda Vostoka' newspaper reported on 4th November.

The paper quoted Igor Fedorenko, the director general of the Rubicon Radio Systems joint venture, the radio station's founder, as telling a news conference on the occasion, that the station was now going to give more time for propagating national ideology.

"We are well aware of the fact that radio is not a means of entertainment, but above all is a mouthpiece for propagating national ideology," he told the news conference.

"In this connection, it is radio Sezam's priority to propagate constantly the republic's achievements over the years of independence, healthy life style, our ancestors' cultural heritage and secular education," Igor Fedorenko said.

The paper said that 60 per cent of the station's all programmes and 70 per cent of its news and analytical programmes would be in Uzbek.

Several years ago, shortly before closing two of the three then operating FM stations, Evropa Plyus (Europa Plus) and Moy Gorod (My City), - the third was called Grand - the official press criticized the FM stations for the lack of patriotism and advocating "foreign" music. It was said that up to 80 per cent of the stations' air time were taken by Russian and foreign music.

Currently there are five round-the-clock FM radio stations in the country, of them four - Grand, Ekho Doliny (The Echo of the Valley), Uzbegim Taronasi (The Uzbek Tune) and Sezam - are private and one - Yoshlar (Youth) - state-owned. Yoshlar is the only station having own correspondents and airing various political programmes. The others mainly play music and commercials and air hourly news summaries.

Yoshlar has the biggest audience, broadcasting to the whole country. Ekho Doliny comes next, covering the Fergana Valley, Tashkent, and Tashkent and Syrdarya Regions, then Sezam, covering Tashkent and Tashkent and Syrdarya Regions, followed by Uzbegim Taronasi, broadcasting to Tashkent and Tashkent Region, and Grand, also covering Tashkent and Tashkent Region.

Sezam was not broadcasting from June to October 2000. The radio said that they were moving to a new building.

Top

court in southern Uzbek Kashkadarya Region has sentenced a man to 12 years in prison for illegally growing and selling marijuana and illegal arms possession, the `Inson va Qonun' newspaper reported on 7th November.

The 36-year old Bori Suyunov, a father of three, was caught red-handed while attempting to sell about 1.3 kg of marijuana to an undercover police officer, the paper said. The police also found two guns and some ammunition in the man's house, the paper added.

Top

ecently Uzbek Defence Minister Qodir Ghulomov paid a working visit to the USA, as part of implementing a military cooperation programme.

During his meetings and talks [in the USA] the US side showed great interest in reforms in the republic, including military ones. It was noted that Uzbekistan played a key role in ensuring security in the Central Asian region.

After an official welcoming ceremony, talks were held at the Pentagon between Ghulomov and US Secretary of Defence William S. Cohen. The sides discussed the future of bilateral cooperation and exchanged views on the situation in the Central Asian region and beyond it. The US defence secretary highly rated the present state of relations between the two countries, and expressed confidence that they would continue to steadily develop.

An agreement was signed as a result of the talks. It envisages further promotion of military and technical cooperation. In particular, a joint programme of action provides for reinforcing Uzbekistan's military power in individual areas - counteracting such phenomena as international terrorism, the drug business and fighting the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

During the visit, the Uzbek delegation studied US military construction expertise and characteristic features of military training and visited training centres and exercise grounds.

Top