Uzbekistan: Drought - Jun 2001

Cities across Central Asia experienced catastrophic seismic shocks throughout the 20th century. For example, Tashkent – the most populated city in Central Asia today – was razed to the ground by a 7.5 magnitude earthquake in 1966, with over 300,000 people reportedly losing their homes. Turkmenistan’s capital city of Ashgabat was severely impacted by a 7.3 quake in 1948, with thousands of deaths reported.

Rafat Aimuratov is on a crusade to save Muynak.

The former bustling fisheries hub in western Uzbekistan is ground zero in what is widely acknowledged to be among the worst environmental disasters of the past century. Decades of intensive water-hungry cotton farming sapped the rivers filling the Aral Sea and left Muynak high and dry, dozens of kilometers from the shore.

If the town is to survive, believes Aimuratov, an ecologist, it will need to find new ways forward. That is now his life’s mission.

Experts from Iran and nine neighbouring countries will cooperate in identifying ways to reduce the risks posed by such natural disasters as drought and earthquakes, which can undermine development gains and worsen poverty.

ANKARA, 17 January (IRIN)
JANUARY

TAJIKISTAN 8/1 - Refugees

A spokesman for the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Tajikistan dismisses a report saying that thousands of Afghan refugees on the country's border with Afghanistan have gone home. "We visited the area last week and know that the population has remained consistent," Aurvasi Patel, a protection officer for UNHCR in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, told IRIN.

TAJIKISTAN: 10/1 - Emergency relief

Government corruption and trickery cannot disguise yet another poor cotton harvest.

General Assembly
Fifty-seventh session
Agenda items 21 (d), 37, 86 (b), 87, 100, 101 and 160
Strengthening of the coordination of humanitarian and disaster relief assistance of the United Nations, including special economic assistance: emergency international assistance for peace, normalcy and reconstruction of war-stricken Afghanistan
The situation in Afghanistan and its implications for international peace and security
Sustainable development and international economic cooperation: integration of the economies in transition into the world economy

Bureaucrats and agricultural collectives appear to be stifling private farmers who've been hailed "the hope of the economy".

by Alyona Suslova, in Karakalpakstan
For the first time in three years I saw children swimming in the irrigation canals of Karakalpakstan. The rains have come this year, and local communities have thrown themselves into cultivating their rapidly expanding cotton, wheat and rice plantations. After three lean years, bread made from local grain is again being baked in the clay ovens.

Tleubai Uteuliev, a mechanic in the village of Kulakhmet in Kanlykul province, says he has been repairing his old tractor since June in the hope that this year they both will be back in business.

News Release No. 190/02

MANILA, PHILIPPINES (18 October 2002) - ADB will maintain an average lending level of US$150 million a year to Uzbekistan over the next three years, according to its Country Strategy and Program Update for 2003-2005, endorsed today.

Should further reforms be implemented, operations and lending levels would be adjusted to respond to emerging needs.

ADB will support efforts in poverty reduction and human development.

What we now know as the sovereign territories of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan were created by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in the 1920s to divide and conquer the Central Asian peoples. The artificial boundaries separated communities, created ethnic enclaves, and disrupted patterns of trade and movement. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, these unnatural dividing lines became international borders.

Launched on: 21 August, 2001 for 4 months for CHF 1,006,653; operation extended by 5 months to 31 May, 2002
Beneficiaries: 20,000 beneficiaries with food support and up to 150,000 beneficiaries with essential drugs and preventive health care.
IN BRIEF

Appeal coverage: 75.6%

Farmers lose their livelihoods in government drive to counter drought and a shortage of arable ground.

This Programme Update is intended for reporting on Annual Appeals.
Appeal Target: CHF 8,263,482

CROP AND FOOD SUPPLY SITUATION

The United Nations Children's Fund today issued a series of updates on emergency donor appeals. The reports detail the humanitarian conditions of countries in crisis for which appeals were launched in the beginning of 2002. Without an immediate infusion of donor aid, UNICEF's capacity to assist children and their mothers will be hindered, several reports reveal. Thier lives are threatened by disease, conflict, hunger and poverty.

URGENT NEEDS FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN UZBEKISTAN

Rome, May 2002

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Economic and Social Council
Substantive session of 2002
New York, 1 - 25 July 2002
Item 5 of the provisional agenda
Special economic, humanitarian and disaster relief assistance

General Assembly
Fifty-seventh SessionItem 21 (a) of the preliminary list
Strengthening of the coordination of humanitarian and disaster relief assistance of the United Nations, including special economic assistance: strengthening of the coordination of emergency humanitarian assistance of the United Nations

Contents Paragraphs

MANILA, PHILIPPINES (2 May 2002) - Living and health conditions in drought-hit western Uzbekistan will be improved through a water supply project for which the Asian Development Bank (ADB) today approved a loan of US$38 million.

The Western Uzbekistan Rural Water Supply Project aims to improve the quality and quantity of drinking water and sanitation to the rural communities in Karakalpalstan and Khorezm, among the country's poorest and driest regions experiencing the worst drought in a century.

CROP AND FOOD SUPPLY SITUATION