Technical innovation and agricultural expansion during the second half of the twentieth century brought the foothills into the range of irrigated agriculture. Customarily, they were the realm of permanent nomads or of peoples who practiced seasonal migration. To summarize, the various post-Soviet agreements may have brought into daylight the complex water and energy issues at stake in the Ferghana Valley and in Central Asia as a whole, while giving rise to a more open dialogue about them. However, they have neither resolved these disputes nor foreclosed further controversies. Indeed, public allegations of breaches of the agreements are now a common feature of these disputes. In an acknowledgment of this, actual water and energy transfers between upstream and downstream countries are largely carried out through annual barter agreements for fuel and water that take place prior to each new irrigation and heating season.