A water and land dispute between villagers living on the border between Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan escalates when Kyrgyz villages block a canal to prevent water flowing to farmers on the Kazakh side of the border.
The Fergana Valley, shared by these three countries, is especially vulnerable to violent eruptions over water and ethnicity. In 1990 an outbreak of violence in the Kyrgyz town of Osh on the border with Uzbekistan claims over 300 lives. The violence is provoked by competition for water, limited arable land, and ethnic tensions.
Uzbekistan cuts natural gas deliveries to Tajikistan in retaliation over a Tajik hydroelectric dam which Uzbeks say will disrupt water supplies. Gas flows resumed after a new contract is signed.
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…
In June 2001, the Kyrgyz parliament adopts a law classifying water as a commodity and announces that downstream countries would be charged for water. In response, Uzbekistan cuts off all deliveries of natural gas to Kyrgyzstan and accuses Kyrgyzstan of failing to honor an agreement to provide Uzbekistan with water in return for oil and gas.
In summer 1999, Tajikistan releases 700 million cubic meters of water from the Kairakum reservoir without warning its downstream neighbors. Among other effects, this cuts water to cotton crops in southern Kazakhstan, causing significant losses to farmers. At the same time, Kyrgyzstan cuts flows to southern Kazakhstan in retaliation for Kazakhstan’s failure to supply coal under barter agreements.
Uzbekistan raises regional tensions by cutting off 70 percent of flow downstream, threatening 100,000 hectares and prompting a riot by Kazakh farmers.
Tensions escalate over two proposed dams in central Asia: Kambarata-1 in Kyrgyzstan and the Rogun Dam in Tajikistan. These dams could affect water supplies in the downstream nations of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan. Uzbekistan’s president, Islam Karimov, says the dams could cause “not just serious confrontation, but even wars.”
In Kyrgyzstan an Uzbek farmer is killed by his Kyrgyz neighbor who reportedly attacks him over access to irrigation water.
Clashes between farmers over irrigation water across the Tajikistan-Kyrgyzstan border escalate, with at least two instances involving armed guards to defuse the fights. One fight started over the installation of a water pump.