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O 140036Z NOV 08
FM AMEMBASSY TASHKENT
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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 TASHKENT 001307 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR SCA/CEN, EEB/ESC 
STATE FOR OES: PHUDAK, NFITE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV SENV EAID SOCI UZ
SUBJECT:  UZBEKISTAN:  THE INTERNATIONAL FUND FOR 
SAVING THE ARAL SEA 
 
REFERENCES:  Tashkent 1052 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY.  The International Fund for Saving 
the Aral Sea (IFAS) sets overall policy and 
coordinates the financing of regional programs in 
the Aral Sea Basin.  Tashkent IFAS office head Usman 
Buranov insists the question of regional water 
management now is exclusively political and is 
inextricably linked to the question of energy.  He 
complained that international organizations worked 
against each other and duplicated each others' work 
in Central Asia.  In Nukus, the capital of 
Uzbekistan's Karakalpakstan Autonomous Region, the 
IFAS Branch Director said IFAS has five main areas 
of work: restore the Amu-Darya River delta system; 
plant trees and shrubs in the Aral Sea dry sea bed 
to reduce dust storms; give micro loans to help 
people find a livelihood; provide potable water; and 
improve health conditions.  END SUMMARY 
 
WATER MANAGEMENT PROBLEM IS POLITICAL, NOT TECHNICAL 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) Established in 1993 and renewed in 1997, 
the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea (IFAS) 
Executive Board consists of Central Asian deputy 
prime ministers who are in charge of agriculture, 
water, and environmental protection.  The Heads of 
the IFAS State Council set overall policy and 
approves the financing of regional programs in the 
Aral Sea Basin.  In addition, IFAS attracts 
financing from international donors for the Aral Sea 
Basin Program (ASBP) that is designed to alleviate 
the ecological situation in the districts around the 
Aral Sea and improve environmental management in 
five Central Asian countries.  This includes the 
creation of a monitoring system for the interstate 
region and a scientific database; flora and fauna 
protection; and trans-boundary resources management. 
IFAS includes its permanently standing Executive 
Committee in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and also its field 
branches in Kyzylorda, Kazakhstan, in Dashauz, 
Turkmenistan and in Nukus, Uzbekistan.  In 
accordance with the Heads of State decision in 1993, 
the Interstate Commission for Water Coordination 
(ICWC) and the Interstate Commission for Sustainable 
Development (ICSD), were made subordinate to the 
IFAS.  (See Reftel for further information on IFAS 
and the water situation in Uzbekistan. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Tashkent IFAS office head Usman Buranov 
told the Regional Environmental Officer (REO) that 
the question of water management is no longer a 
technical question but rather a political one.  The 
entire water management infrastructure was built 
during the era of the Soviet Union, but it began to 
disintegrate after the Soviet Union's collapse. 
For example, he cited an electrical power station in 
Ferghana Valley that is currently inoperable because 
the water levels in the surrounding basin are too 
low to generate sufficient hydro power.   Tajikistan 
and Kyrgyzstan have large uranium tailings that are 
posing severe threats to the existing water basins, 
and while some work has been done to prevent this, 
there is still much more that needs to be done. 
Buranov noted that in general the land quality is 
worsening.  In Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan's 
autonomous region and the most downstream part of 
Uzbekistan, there is not enough water for local use. 
 
 
TASHKENT 00001307  002.2 OF 004 
 
 
¶4. (SBU) Buranov noted that the question of proper 
water management in the region is inextricably 
linked to the question of energy, especially hydro- 
energy.  He complained that international 
organizations (he was purposefully vague which 
organizations) were not very helpful.  When working 
in Uzbekistan, they supported Uzbekistan's position 
that the main rivers and their tributaries should be 
treated as trans-boundary water resources.  When in 
Kyrgyzstan, the IOs supported Kyrgyzstan's position 
that water is a national resource to be treated as a 
strategic commodity.  Furthermore, many IOs 
duplicate each others' work in Central Asia and do 
not actually advance a meaningful solution.  Buranov 
wants to see "an absolutely neutral" observer come 
to Central Asia from "an authoritative organization" 
in order to help resolve the regional water 
management issue.  He noted that the EU has left 
behind a lot of material and equipment in Uzbekistan 
that now is simply not being utilized.  He offered 
his organization's services to help the IOs with 
infrastructure assistance, customs processing, and 
implementation. 
 
NUKUS AT THE END OF THE LINE 
---------------------------- 
 
¶5. (SBU) IFAS's largest field office is in Nukus, 
the capital of Uzbekistan's Karakalpakstan 
Autonomous Republic, an impoverished region and the 
most hard-hit because of the desiccation of the Aral 
Sea.  (Note: Nukus is near the end of the downstream 
Amu-Darya.  The only hotel in town turns its water 
on at 7 AM for one hour in order to conserve the 
scarce water supply.  End note.)  IFAS Nukus Branch 
Director Ubbiniyaz Ashirbekov told the REO that IFAS 
in Nukus has completed most of its initial 22 
projects, and five more are currently in the 
planning stage involving small-scale grants from 
$5,000-50,000.  IFAS has five main areas of work in 
the region:  restore the Amu-Darya River delta 
system; plant trees and shrubs in the Aral Sea dry 
sea bed to reduce dust storms; give micro loans to 
help people find a livelihood; provide potable water; 
and improve health conditions. 
 
RESTORE AMU-DARYA DELTA ECOLOGICAL SYSTEM 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶6. (SBU) Ashirbekov said IFAS hopes to reverse the 
drying up of the Amu-Darya River Delta that feeds 
into the Aral Sea.  In the past, the Amu-Darya delta 
had more than 100 fresh water lakes with more than 
600,000 hectares of surface water.  Much of this is 
now lost.  IFAS was able to restore a couple of 
lakes, but the Mezhdurechinskoye Reservoir, designed 
to be a primary accumulator in the region of runoff 
water, was a failure, and it is now essentially 
empty after the dam and sluice gate collapsed 
shortly after construction.  This project hoped to 
emulate Kazakhstan's successful dam project that has 
contributed to the restoration of the North Aral Sea. 
Ashirbekov still holds out hope that IFAS can find 
funding to restart this project.  (Note: On the road 
from Nukus to Muynak, REO saw the Amu-Darya river 
levels were so low that the water appeared to be 
standing, with no flow at all.  Near Muynak the 
mighty Amu-Darya was barely a streamlet that could 
easily be waded across or, in some cases, jumped 
across.  REO saw a number of reservoirs that 
 
TASHKENT 00001307  003 OF 004 
 
 
Ashirbekov mentioned.  Some were empty fields that 
could catch runoff water, if there were any to 
catch.  Others were more like isolated pools serving 
no purpose.  REO did see a number of cows taking an 
afternoon drink in the otherwise arid and parched 
landscape.  End note.) 
 
¶7. (SBU) Ashirbekov estimated that five billion 
cubic meters of water per year would be needed just 
to support the lake system and ensure the water 
level was appropriate.  Of this, 3.5 million are so- 
called "environmental flows" that must be released 
downstream in accord with regional agreements signed 
by the five Central Asian presidents in 1993 but 
never implemented.  This water has to be released, 
no matter how much flow there is in the Amu-Darya 
River.  The remaining 1.5 million cubic meters will 
come from drainage from the agricultural fields. 
Ashirbekov said this chain of lakes can also help 
reduce the dust and sand storms that come in from 
the north.  It can also hold water surplus from the 
Amu-Darya and, once the sluice gate is built, can 
release the surplus water into the East Aral Sea as 
needed.  He said IFAS has solved all the technical 
problems and all that remains is to find adequate 
financing.  He estimated the cost of the water 
system project at $60 million, of which IFAS has 
spent $14 million thus far, most of it on the 
Mezhdurechinskoye Reservoir. 
 
FORESTATION TO REDUCE SEA BED DUST STORMS 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶8. (SBU) Ashirbekov said the Aral Sea currently is 
unfit for any use.  It is so heavily salinized now 
that there is a 20 kilometer wide edge of 
crystallized salt along much of the sea coast, with 
water saline levels that exceed 100 grams per liter. 
Because of the continual desiccation of the Aral Sea 
and its shrinkage, the amount of new dry land area 
(sea bed area) in Uzbekistan now is about three 
million hectares.  Of this, about 250-300,000 
hectares are suitable to plant salt-resistant and 
drought-resistant trees and bushes. 
 
¶9. (SBU) IFAS has planted some saline-resistant, 
drought-resistant brush and trees in the dry seabed 
and, according to Ashirbekov, that has helped reduce 
the amount of salt and dust blown into the air. 
This forestation has also helped prevent a further 
decrease in the underground water table, which has a 
significant impact on biodiversity as well as 
ecological consequences for further forestation and 
wildlife.  IFAS looks to plant 10-11,000 hectares 
per year, with funding both from the government and 
from international organizations.  However, he said, 
it will take 30 years to complete the forestation at 
this rate.  To date, IFAS has forested about 7,000 
hectares. 
 
MICRO LOANS TO FIGHT POVERTY 
---------------------------- 
 
¶10. (SBU) Ashirbekov said the agriculture sector 
accounts for up to 70 percent of Uzbekistan's GDP 
and provides livelihood to a significant portion of 
the population.  Unfortunately, all the irrigation 
water in the Karakalpakstan region is highly 
salinized and the downstream river is heavily 
polluted.  This has contributed to a threefold 
 
TASHKENT 00001307  004 OF 004 
 
 
decrease in agricultural production in the course of 
the past 30 years, which is reflected in the low 
living standard of the people in Karakalpakstan. 
IFAS now works with commercial banks, giving them 
grant money that banks then use as collateral to 
extend micro loans to provide individuals with a 
livelihood.  These loans can be for simple livestock 
and plant production, but many loans are also for 
livelihoods not linked to agriculture that enable 
local residents to find alternative job 
opportunities.  He cited loans for a photography 
shop, a cable TV business, and small-scale 
industrial production workshops as examples.  IFAS 
also provides legal and economic consultation to 
local residents on how to deal with banks, lawyers, 
and the government bureaucracy. 
 
PROVIDE SANITARY POTABLE WATER TO PEOPLE 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶11. (SBU) Ashirbekov said IFAS, working with water 
utility companies and the Ministry of Water and 
Agriculture, has carried out a number of projects to 
help bring drinking water to towns and villages.  In 
addition, IFAS provided automated chlorinating 
equipment to water utilities to ensure a 
standardized dosage (it is now done by hand, 
resulting in improper levels of chlorination) and 
supplied 34 hospitals with water decontamination 
equipment.  (Note: On the plane to Nukus, we 
overheard a woman explaining that she once lived in 
Muynak near the Aral Sea for six months, and then 
her teeth started to fall out.  She attributed this 
to the high salinity in the local water supply.  End 
note.) 
 
IMPROVE LOCAL HEALTH CONDITIONS 
------------------------------- 
 
¶12. (SBU) Ashirbekov said the deteriorated 
environmental situation in Karakalpakstan adversely 
affects the health of the local population.  There 
is a higher incidence of anemia as well as heart, 
kidney, liver, and prostate diseases.  Orphans and 
children in poor households are the most vulnerable, 
he said, having virtually no protection at all. 
There are some medical centers that support those 
with disabilities and give food and clothing to the 
poor.  South Korea has a special program that has 
helped these centers, and the South Korean Embassy 
is actively engaged.  IFAS also is looking for 
funding to provide assistance. (Comment: Ambassador 
met with the head of the Uzbek NGO ECO-SAN, which 
works to improve the health of residents of the Aral 
Sea region through projects to provide potable water 
and plant salt-tolerant vegetation to prevent the 
dispersion of salt from the former sea bed to 
adjacent agricultural land.  Embassy and USAID will 
look at ways to assist the work of ECO-SAN.  ECO-SAN 
enjoys high-level GOU support and could be an 
effective vehicle through which to provide 
assistance to a politically and geographically 
isolated part of Uzbekistan.  End Comment.) 
 
NORLAND