The Water Management Crisis in Soviet Central Asia

Water is biologically essential to all life. Without an adequate supply plants and animals soon perish. But an abundant and assured supply of fresh water is also an economic and social necessity to modem industrial societies which withdraw prodigious amounts of it, chiefly for industrial, agricultural, and municipal purposes. Massive water withdrawals are particularly essential in arid regions where irrigation has been extensively developed. However, since irrigation is a major consumptive user of water (i.e., a large proportion of water withdrawn is not returned directly to the supply source), rivers and ground water suffer significant depletion with attendant ecological, economic, and social consequences.