By Maria Golovnina
VAKHDAT, Tajikistan (Reuters) - Under a scorching sun, anexhausted Tajik woman looks at a drying trickle of irrigationwater running across her cotton field.
"Water is all we have," said Gulbakhor, a 55-year-oldmother of nine, pointing at swathes of parched land stretchingtowards the austere mountains of central Tajikistan. She didnot want to give her last name.
"But all the ponds and rivers are dry. We need to water ourcrop but we don't have enough even for ourselves."
Gulbakhor's despair, shared by millions of Tajiks in thistiny ex-Soviet nation north of Afghanistan, reflects a growingsense of alarm throughout Central Asia where stability dependson the region's scarcest and most precious commodity: water.
From tiny irrigation canals such as Gulbakhor's to thepowerful Soviet-era hydroelectric plants, water is the sourceof misery and celebration in a poor region already overflowingwith political and ethnic tension.
Central Asia is one of the world's driest places where,thanks to 70 years of Soviet planning, thirsty crops such ascotton and grain remain the main livelihood for most of the 58million people.
Disputes over cross-border water use have simmered foryears in this sprawling mass of land wedged between Iran,Russia and China. Afghanistan, linked to Central Asia by theAmu Daria river, is adding to the tension by claiming its ownshare of the water.
Water shortages are causing concern the world over, becauseof rising demand, climate change and swelling populations.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said water scarcityis a "potent fuel for wars and conflict".
Analysts say this year's severe weather fluctuations inCentral Asia -- from a record cold winter to devastating springfloods and now drought -- are causing extra friction.
"Water is very political. It's very sensitive. It can be apretext for disputes or conflicts," said Christophe Bosch, aCentral Asia water expert at the World Bank. "It is one of themajor irritants between countries in Central Asia."
WASTE
In the Tajik village of Sangtuda, a scattering of huts in adusty, sun-puckered valley near the border with Afghanistan,villagers showed their only source of water: a rusty pipepumping muddy water from a Soviet-era reservoir.
"We are lucky. There are villages around with no water atall," said Khikoyat Shamsiddinova, an elderly farmer who saidshe had started planting drought-tolerant peas and watermelons-- a small boost to her household income.
Water scarcity is particularly painful for Tajikistan sinceits glaciers and rivers contain some of the world's biggestuntapped water resources. A Soviet-era legacy of waste anddecaying pipe networks are hampering sustainable distribution.
The World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction andDevelopment and a host of European non-governmentalorganizations are helping Tajikistan build new canals and wellsand repair the old ones.
Efficient water management requires advanced engineeringexpertise in water saving and resource planning in a regionwhere most water simply vanishes into the ground if theirrigation timing is incorrect, experts say.
"If you look at quantity, yes, you have a lot of it, but itis not a question of quantity but quality and timing," said theWorld Bank's Bosch. "That's the problem in Central Asia."
The problems are having an effect far beyond farming.Lacking oil and gas reserves like some of its neighbours,Tajikistan depends on its sole Soviet-era hydroelectric plant,Nurek, to generate power.
Its crumbling power grid -- ruined by civil war in the1990s -- finally gave out last winter, throwing hospitals,schools and millions of people into the dark and cold forweeks.
Makhmadnabi, a villager with a tired, weather-beaten faced,said people were becoming impatient. "The government must dosomething about it. People are gloomy," he said.
With a foreign debt worth 40 percent of the economy andstate coffers empty, Tajikistan is unable to finance urgentsector reform, adding to discontent and potential unrest in anotherwise tightly run country where dissent is not tolerated.
"There is definitely a build-up of dissatisfaction," saidone Western diplomat who asked not be identified because of thesensitivity of the issue. "People will have to go throughanother winter of dark and cold and then they will realize thatsomething's wrong."
WORRYING TREND
There have been no outward signs of anger, but the trend isa worry for Western powers watching the strategically placedcountry for signs of trouble.
In April, parliament urged Tajiks to give up half theirwages in May and June to help finish construction of the $3billion (1.54 billion pounds) Rogun hydroelectric plant -- aproject seen as key to solving energy shortages but which hasbeen frozen since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
"I urge all the patriots and sons of our land to takeactive part in constructing the first phase of the plant andadd your contribution to the country's energy independence,"Tajik President Imomali Rakhmon was quoted as saying in localmedia on May 31.
In Soviet days, water management was unified under Moscow'scontrol, which linked Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, whose riversand glaciers contain more than 90 percent of Central Asianwater, with the arid plains of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan andKazakhstan.
The system fell apart when Soviet rule collapsed. Withnational rivalries on the rise, the new states have been unableto agree on how to share their water effectively.
Uzbekistan, Central Asia's most populous nation and a biggas producer, is angry that poor Tajikistan has the leverage toinfluence water levels in its cotton plains -- a powerfulpolitical tool.
Farmers in Kazakhstan, for their part, accuse Uzbekistan ofdumping fertilizer in its rivers. Tajik officials complain thatforeign investment in its hydroelectric sector has stalledbecause of fears of conflict with Uzbekistan.
A Chinese company pulled out of a project to build a powerstation on a Tajik river last year because of what Tajikindustry sources said was China's reluctance to get involved inCentral Asian bickering.
Observers agree that only cooperation between the five"stans" of Central Asia can provide sustainable water use.
"Countries should be able to do this as independententities," said another Western diplomat, who also preferrednot to be identified. "They're not children. They are grown-upmembers of the international community."
