Tajikistan is working on a plan to export freshwater from Sarez Lake to Gulf countries and other regions experiencing water scarcity, according to Tajik Ambassador to Kuwait, Zubaydullo Zubaydzoda, as reported by Kuwait Moments.
Sarez Lake, formed amid mountains by an earthquake that struck Rushon District of Tajikistan’s eastern Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO) in 1911, causing a landslide that blocked the Murghab River, is a significant potential freshwater export source. It spans 61 kilometres (38 miles) in length and reaches depths of 500 metres. Seismologists worried that another major earthquake in the vicinity could cause catastrophic flooding of land below the location of the lake.
In all, upstream Tajikistan holds around 60% of Central Asia’s water resources.
Envoy Zubaydzoda reportedly outlined the water shipment plan during a meeting with the United Nations Office in Kuwait. Meeting participants discussed the outcomes of the 3rd High-Level International Conference on the International Decade for Action, “Water for Sustainable Development,” 2018-2022.
The growing impacts of the climate crisis on critical resources faced by numerous countries are increasingly menacing where inventive means to counteract effects are not within reach. As bne IntelliNews reported in March, a third of the world’s population could live in a climate similar to the Sahara in just 50 years, according to a study published in PNAS. That means 3.5bn people could live with average temperatures in the mid-80s, “outside of humanity’s comfort zone” by 2070.
In under 50 years large swathes of South America, Central Africa, India and Northern Australia will become too hot to allow for human life. And the acceleration of global warming suggests this deadline is being moved forward.
Once these regions become too hot for human life an estimated 3bn people will be forced to abandon their homes in the largest migration the world has ever seen. This is set to play out over the next three decades.
The drought levels across regions including the Mediterranean zones in Spain and Italy and elsewhere are already alarming. Last year was the hottest on record and with sea temperatures already smashing last year’s records this year is set to be worse. While Europe will not become uninhabitable, the temperatures in the coming decades will become uncomfortably high.
Source: Bne
