Recent changes in Soviet water management: turnabout of the “Project of the Century”

Review of the history of Soviet water management indicates that the recently abolished N to S river transfer program would only be marginally helpful in hydroenergy production, river navigation, estuarine fishery, and stabilization of water levels in the Caspian and Aral seas, but would be significantly harmful to the ecology of the N parts of the USSR. Widely criticized mismanagement of coutrywide irrigation will only be exacerbated by water deversions. After Gorbachov's ascension, Soviet water management reached a pivotal point. Further expansion of water-wasteful irrigation will be drastically curtailed. A new comprehensive land reclamation programm will be initiated in order to boost farm production without additional interbasin water transfers. This program will basically consist of complex measures of forestation and land cultivations, soul erosion prevention, improvement of water delivery systems to the cropland, strict water rationing during irrigation, water conservation by efficient treatment, and reuse of collected drainage water. It is not yet clear how the Soviet planners intend to alleviate water shortages in Central Asia and prevent the shrinkage of the Aral Sea.Research for this Paper was completed under a fellowship at the Woodrow Wilson Center and prepared for presentation at a colloquium, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Smithsonian, April 14, 1987. This paper cannot be copied without the consent and permission of the author.