Water barter
AN UNUSUAL trade between three desperate countries in the central Asian region has meant that water will be bartered for gas and coal. The republics of Kyrgyzstan) Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan entered into an agreement in the first week of April to improve cross border deliveries of water and energy.
The accord seeks to mitigate the sufferings of these countries which until recently were part of the erstwhile Soviet Union. What were national resources earlier have now become properties of individual nations, forcing the issue of how to share them to come out in the open. Kyrgyzstan has agreed to guarantee supplies of hydroelectricity and water - to neighbours Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan - in return for the Uzbek gas and Kazakh coal. Said Zhenishbek Bekbolotov, Kyrgyzstan's minister for water resources, "Water is a commodity. Any natural resource that is used should be paid for." The accord, however, falls short of creating a pricing mechanism for the various commodities.
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