Kyrgyzstan: Conflicts in Kyrgyzstan Foreshadow Water Wars to Come

Jun 17, 2014 | Fyodor Savintsev, Creative Time Reports
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Water scarcity is an omnipresent plight in the developing world. Today 780 million people lack access to drinking water. By 2030 nearly half the world’s population will inhabit areas of “high water stress,” according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. In Central Asia the lack of the precious resource not only traps people in situations of dire need and sanitary hazard; it also foreshadows the rise of “water wars”—cross-border skirmishes over access to water that aggravate ecological strife and give it sharp political overtones.