TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, Sept. 25 (UPI) -- Uzbek specialists are expressing concerns about hydroelectric installations in neighboring Kyrgyzstan being vulnerable to seismic activity.
Obshchestvennyi Reiting reported Friday that Uzbekistan's Academy of Sciences Institute of Seismology member Mahir Usmanov observed of Kyrgyzstan's hydroelectric infrastructure, "The construction and operation (of hydroelectric facilities) in a zone of high seismic activity, where the headwaters of trans-boundary rivers in Central Asia are located, where large hydraulic structures (retain) tens of billions of cubic meters of water, is a potential threat to the possibility of a destructive cascade effect when a minor breach in one place would produce a domino effect, releasing an unstoppable mass discharge of polluted water. This could cause enormous economic and environmental damage to countries located downstream along the trans-boundary rivers, particularly Uzbekistan."
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan control the headwaters of the Amu and Syr rivers, whose downstream flow is critical to the agriculture of downstream Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.
Since 2008 Uzbekistan has been seeking international support to have the two rivers declared trans-boundary rivers under international law, which would force Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to abandon unilateral water discharge policies.
