''Delta Blues (In a Land of Cotton)'' is a 2001

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

. The movie deals with the environmental problems emanating from the drying up of the Aral Sea, and the impact this has on political relationships in the

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

n region (especially

Uzbekistan Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked co ...

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan,, pronounced or the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the south, and the People's Republic of China to the ea ...

, and

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan ( or ; tk, Türkmenistan / Түркменистан, ) is a country located in Central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the sout ...

). In particular, it focuses on the document ''Water-related vision for the Aral Sea basin for the year 2025'' by

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

, as presented in 2000 at the 2nd

World Water Forum The World Water Forum (WWF) is an event focusing on perceived issues surrounding water. It is organized by the World Water Council and Global Water Partnership and takes place every three years. Aim World Water Forum aims to: :* Raise awareness ...

in The Hague. This document has been criticized for setting unrealistic goals, and also, by focusing on the entire basin (south-west Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan), for implicitly giving up on the Aral Sea and the people living downstream in

Karakalpakstan Karakalpakstan, / officially the Republic of Karakalpakstan, / is an autonomous republic of Uzbekistan. It occupies the whole northwestern part of Uzbekistan. The capital is Nukus (' / ). The Republic of Karakalpakstan has an area of , and ...

Summary

The cause of the drying up of the Aral Sea is the extensive

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has been devel ...

, used for the production of (mainly)

cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor pe ...

. Apart from cotton being a thirsty crop, the irrigation canals are very inefficient and much water is wasted. Furthermore, the water that is returned to the rivers is highly polluted (with pesticides and

fertilizer A fertilizer (American English) or fertiliser (British English; see spelling differences) is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from ...

s). There is however no incentive to change the irresponsible use of water in the region. Water is an externality, regarded as given by nature or God. This leads to a situation where those (countries, regions or farms) who use most of the available water, benefit the most, but do not pay for it, leaving others (living downstream) with less and polluted water. Whereas in most debates about accountability for water use,

privatization Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...

is seen as the enemy of the people dependent on the water, many

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

s in this (former

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

) region claim instead that the source of the water-related problems lies in the irresponsible use of water, mainly by the agricultural sector (which is still predominantly owned by the state). Many claim that this can only be changed by changing the soviet paradigm, namely by putting a price tag on water: the more water one uses and/or pollutes, the more one should pay.

Interviewees

Oral Ataniyazova Oral Ataniyazova (russian: Орал Атаниязова) is an obstetrician and medical scientist from Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan. She is the director of ''Perzent'', the Karakalpak Center for Reproductive Health and Environment. Biography Ata ...

(foundation ''Perzent'', Nukus) * Yusup Kamalov (''Union for Defence of the Aral Sea and Amudarya river'' (UDASA), Nukus) * Meryem Aslan (

Oxfam Novib Oxfam is a British-founded confederation of 21 independent charitable organizations focusing on the alleviation of global poverty, founded in 1942 and led by Oxfam International. History Founded at 17 Broad Street, Oxford, as the Oxford C ...

, The Hague) * Max Spoor (

Institute of Social Studies The International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) of Erasmus University Rotterdam is an independent and international graduate school of policy-oriented critical social science. ISS was established in 1952 by Dutch universities and the Neth ...

, The Hague) * Ian Small (

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF; pronounced ), also known as Doctors Without Borders, is a humanitarian medical non-governmental organisation (NGO) or charity of French origin known for its projects in conflict zones and in countries affected by endemic diseases. ...

, Nukus) * Scott O'Connor (''Central Asia Free Exchange'' (CAFE), Nukus) * Sagitzjan Aitzjanov (''Central Asia Free Exchange'', Muynak) * Frits Verhoog (

, Paris) * Rashid Koshekov (''Ministry of Water'',

) * Bakhtiyar Zhollybekov / Jollibekov (''Tashkent Agrarian University'', Nukus)

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official site
of the documentary film ''Delta Blues''
Trailer
of the documentary film ''Delta Blues'' * UNESCO's
Water-related vision for the Aral Sea basin for the year 2025
', as presented in March 2000 at the 2nd

in The Hague
Article
on UNESCO's ''Water Related Vision for the Aral Sea Basin''
Environmental issues with water Documentary films about water and the environment Central Asia

Summary

Interviewees

See also

References

External links