ABSTRACT
Agriculture in the newly independent republics of the former Soviet Central Asia is almost entirely dependent on irrigation. Consequently, access to water is essential and it has long played an important role in the social, environmental, economic and political situation of the region. Today, as in the past, agriculture represents the single most important economic activity throughout the region, and currently over 40 per cent of the population is employed in the commercial agricultural sector, with the vast majority of Central Asians either partially or wholly dependent on subsistence agriculture. The agricultural sector throughout Central Asia, however, is under threat because of the rapid deterioration in the water distribution and irrigation since the collapse of the Soviet Union (O’Hara, in press).
