Running dry...

["Johannes Schneider" <Johannes.Schneider@xxxxxxx>]

AFP at Daily Times (Pakistan):
'Central Asia must be a priority as world faces water crisis'
By Nick Coleman
DUSHANBE: Tajikistan's President Emomali Rakhmonov called for help to solve
the water problems of Central Asia's Aral Sea basin and for global attention
to problems such as flooding, desertification and water-borne disease at a
UN-sponsored conference in the Tajik capital on Saturday.
"Today more than one billion people the world over lack access to safe
drinking water", Rakhmonov told delegates from around 50 countries. The
gradual drying up of the Aral Sea has left a 400-square-kilometre toxic
wasteland threatening some three million local residents and "will cause
climate change over a vast territory", Rakhmonov said.

Full:
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_31-8-2003_pg4_13

AFP at New York Times:
Water Issues Erupt at Central Asia Forum
By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
DUSHANBE, Tajikistan, Aug. 31 (Agence France-Presse) - Antagonism
surrounding water issues in the former Soviet nations of Central Asia
erupted today at a United Nations-sponsored forum here to try to rescue the
region's deteriorating environment.
On the second day of the 50-nation meeting, the water issue provoked
considerable hostility, with delegates exchanging thinly disguised
criticisms.

Full:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/01/international/asia/01ASIA.html

BBC on Dushanbe conference:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3192241.stm