Wednesday, 13th October 2010
Stage set for world’s first ‘eco war’?
The drying up of Central Asia’s Aral Sea could create millions of refugees and set the stage for the world’s first ‘environmental war’, Scottish Conservative MEP Struan Stevenson told a conference in Brussels today.
Since 1960, the Aral Sea in Central Asia – once the fourth-largest bodies of water in the world - has all but dried up due to disastrous irrigation projects, leaving vast tracts of windswept salty desert. Former bustling fishing ports are now like ghost towns, over 100 miles from the water's edge.
The summit brought together experts from the Central Asian republics, the United Nations, the European Commission and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
They were told intensive growing of cotton - a water hungry crop - since the days of the Soviet Union, had caused the catastrophe. With the Aral Sea now just a tenth of its former size, toxic dust storms blow salt, sand and chemical pollutants over thousands of square miles, causing deserts to spread and affecting the livelihoods of 48 million people in the area.
Chairing the Conference, Scottish Conservative Euro MP Struan Stevenson said:
"There has got to be a recognition amongst the five republics in Central Asia that water is now a critical issue and one that, unless properly managed, could lead to the creation of environmental refugees and mass migration.
“This in turn could trigger conflict in what is already a highly sensitive zone. But we in the West cannot simply impose solutions in Central Asia. There needs to be political will and the desire to find regional solutions to these huge problems."
Mr Stevenson also warned that a post-conflict Afghanistan might double its water use as its economy begins to grow, further exacerbating the tensions in the region. This too required careful management, he said.
Professor Sarah O'Hara of Nottingham University, a world expert on the Aral Sea, said that plans to empty the Aral Sea and use the exposed seabed as agricultural land dated back to the time of Tsar Peter the Great of Russia, but that its achievement in modern times was creating a ‘perfect storm’ of problems.
