KAZAKHSTAN - In a world plagued by a pandemic, some stories get left behind. One that has escaped headlines, probably understandably, is the Kazakh government’s new six-month ban on exporting food for livestock, insisting produce stay at home. The reason for this intervention, which has come after the resignation of an agriculture minister and against the wishes of some farmers and exporters, is a severe drought in much of the west of the country. Following on from a dry winter, it has lasted for months and already inflicted great damage to pastures, the livestock depending on them, and the communities who, in turn, need the livestock.
Of course, Kazakhstan is not alone. In neighboring Kyrgyzstan, for instance, in some areas farmers face the loss of their crops due to harsh conditions. There, agriculture workers have started demanding that the government keep at home not fodder but something even more essential: water. Until now, such calls have been resisted by the government. If Kyrgyzstan were to cut off water exports to other countries, Kazakhstan would be severely affected. In general, all of Central Asia is currently under intense pressure not only from the effects of the Covid pandemic, but also from unusual heat and water scarcity.
To see why that would be a very bad precedent to set, think of Central Asia as a cluster of mountains with plenty of plains (relatively speaking, at least) attached. The key links between the mountains and the plains are the Amu and Syr Darya rivers. In essence, the two upstream countries have the mountains, the three others the plains. An estimated 80 percent of the region’s water supplies comes from those mountains. Conversely, the downstream countries ultimately depend for about 90 percent of their water needs on mountains that are beyond their borders.
As one study has put it, Central Asia’s mountain ranges are, in effect, its water towers. Yet despite the clear need for cooperation across borders, in general, experts agree, Central Asia has not yet found its way to a new, post-Soviet, integrated and long-term system of managing its water needs and resources, despite ongoing efforts.
Yet even disregarding such aspects, we can also see Central Asia as a particularly concise example of problems that the world is facing as a whole – a sort of microcosm, if you will. What gives the post-Soviet region’s water problems that sort of relevance are, in essence, two things: one is a legacy from the past, the other points to a future which has already begun. The past in question is from the USSR, and the future is global. Kazakhstan may seem remote to many, but it may also be a harbinger of things to come – or rather, things that are already nearly upon us.
“Just what is an APOSTLE?”
Today we find the Church of God in a “wilderness of religious confusion!”
The confusion is not merely around the Church – within the religions of the world outside – but WITHIN the very heart of The True Church itself!
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