Disputes over unclear borders and poor communications lead to a series of confrontations over water resources in a border area of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. The confrontations with Kyrgyz border guards occur when villagers from Isfara Tajikistan cross into the southern Batken district of Kyrgyzstan to remove a dam blocking an irrigation canal preventing water from reaching the Tajik village of Hoja Alo. The dam is located in an area where the boundary line between the two states has not been agreed. Actions by Kyrgyzstan cut off irrigation water to Tajikistan during the spring growing season.
