ABSTRACT
This chapter presents that some more detail is Central Asia, where excessive abstractions of water from two rivers, the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, mainly for cotton irrigation, have resulted in the near-disappearance of the Aral Sea. In the European Union, for example, where little cotton is grown, most of the water footprint of cotton consumption is located outside Europe, with major impacts particularly in India and Uzbekistan, but also in Pakistan, Turkey, China, Syria, Turkmenistan and Egypt. Cotton is mainly produced in the southern region of the Aral Sea Basin, using primarily blue water resources. The shrinking of the Aral Sea is a sad example of what can happen when water productivities are poor while, at the same time, cotton production volumes and associated water demands exceed by far the carrying capacity of the basin. Cotton remains a strategically important commodity for the three largest producing countries Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan.
