Authors

Nafisa Mirzojamshedzoda¹;  ¹ Eberswalde University(HNEE)/University of Fribourg, Germany

Discussion

Environmental change creates new natural conditions, affects social relations, and alters discourses and understandings of resource availability. Our study investigates water scarcity amid disputes and conflict escalation between communities in the transboundary area of the Fergana Valley in Central Asia. We aim to analyse the shifts in water availability at the intersection of socio-political and environmental processes, as well as discuss how farmers and water users adjust hydrosocial arrangements to changing conditions. For this, we examine contextual variables in two case studies (Konibodom and Jabbor Rasulov region) situated along transboundary rivers and irrigation canals connecting Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan. These case studies were chosen for the following reasons: firstly, they are illustrative of path dependencies in land use and environmental transformation, such as the expansion of irrigation, higher cropping frequency, and wetland drainage, which have been disrupting the natural hydrological balance and exacerbating the vulnerability of the local ecosystems. Secondly, they represent unique contexts of ethnically diverse communities in the transboundary area shared between three neighbouring countries. The analysis of our case studies is based on the study of published materials on water management in the Fergana Valley, semi-structured interviews and participatory observation during our field studies in 2023 and 2024. We look at the present hydrosocial arrangements through the lens of the historical development of settlements along the expansion of irrigation routes during the Soviet Union and uncover the challenges of re-scaling the major engineering projects. In line with the topic of the panel, our objective is to provide a nuanced understanding of conflict and cooperation dynamics, informing more effective policy responses in the region for sustainable use of water resources.