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Aral Sea Water RightsBy Sandra Akmansoy, M.S.E and Daene C. McKinney ABSTRACT The Aral Sea, whose basin includes the countries of Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, occupies an area of 66,000 km2 and a volume of 1,060 km3 in 1960. Since 1960, the amount of irrigated land has increased by 100%, and the population in the basin has increased by140%. The flow from the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, the rivers which supply 90% of the Aral Sea’s water resources, was diverted for irrigation and to sustain the booming population since the 1950s. As a result, the Aral Sea has lost 50% of its surface area and 66% of it volume, and has become an environmental disaster area. Before the fall of the Union Soviet Socialist Republic, the water resources in Central Asia were shared between the Republics. Since the fall of the USSR, the topic of water rights has emerged. The downstream nations of Turkmenistan, Kazakstan, and Uzbekistan are dependent on the Aral Sea basin for irrigation especially during the hot summer months. The upstream nations of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are dependent on the Aral Sea basin for hydroelectric power especially during the cold winter months. As these Central Asian countries try to negotiate treaties and regulations on water use, the Helsinki Rules have been cited and quoted as being the standard in determining the rights of the upstream countries to release or hold water storage. The Helsinki Convention, redrafted in May 1997 and adopted by the International Law Commission list 11 factors, to be weighed equally, in determining water rights: (1) the extent of drainage area, (2) the contribution of water, (3) the climate, (4) past and present utilization of the waters, (5) economic and social needs, (6) population dependent on the waters, (7) comparative costs of social and economic alternatives, (8) availability of other resources, (9) the optimization of the waters, (10) practicability of compensation , and (11) the degree to which a nation may be satisfied without causing harm to another nation. These factors were analyzed in respect of the Aral Sea basin to determine the water rights of each country. The hydrology of the Aral Sea basin is analyzed using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The watershed and streams of the basin are delineated to compute the extent of watershed within each country: the downstream countries, Uzbekistan, Kazakstan, and Turkmenistan have the greatest shares of the Aral Sea basin. GIS is also used to compute the evaporation and water surplus of the area. A snowmelt component based on precipitation as rain and snow is incorporated to the program because of the high altitudes (greater than 8,000 meters) and low temperatures (average below 0oC) in part of the basin. The results showed that the upstream countries, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, produce the largest amount of water surplus in the Aral Sea basin. The economy of Central Asia has suffered tremendously since the fall of the Soviet Union. There are high rates of inflation, poverty, unemployment, credit shortages, and declines in the gross domestic product (GDP). Furthermore, the Aral Sea crisis, with the pollution of the rivers, and the salt windstorms, has caused cancer, anemia, miscarriages, and respiratory and circulatory problems, to increase substantially, especially in the regions nearest to the Aral Sea. The conclusion of this thesis is that the non-hydrologic factors of The Helsinki Convention are hard to answer and apply to circumstances. The economic or social dependence of one country is hard to rate or classify above another country’s. GDP, social, employment, and health statistics cannot be the only basis for determining who is more “dependent. However, based on the hydrologic study, all five countries have equal rights to the Aral Sea waters. The highlighted links that follow are connected to Adobe pdf files of the corresponding material. To view them you must have the Adobe Acrobat Reader 3.0. View the Whole Report...(2.4MB)
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