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Culture
SOUTH ASIA: Superstition May Yet Save Marine Reserve
By Praful Bidwai
NEW DELHI, Sep 24 (IPS) - India’s plans to dredge a navigable canal between the Gulf of Mannar (which separates India from Sri Lanka) in the face of strong economic and ecological objections have now run, of all things, into a religious obstacle.
JAPAN: Flushing Away Toilet Taboos
By Suvendrini Kakuchi
TOKYO, Sep 13 (IPS) - The evolution of the toilet in Japan, from the humble squat latrines of a few decades ago to today’s hi-tech, cockpit like contraptions, parallels the dramatic rise of this country from post-war ruination to global technological leadership.
A Poet’s Ode to the Aral Sea
TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, Dec 14 (Asia Water Wire) – “The Aral Sea is quietly disappearing. The sea is becoming shallow… A hot wind will blow tomorrow. The sea elements are sighing, exposing the bottom of the cliff pebble by pebble, centimetre by centimetre.” -- Uzbek poet and journalist Raim Farhadi wrote these lines nearly 40 years ago, when he noticed that the sea had drawn back from the Aral’s former shore by a few metres. 
BRUNEI: For Kampong Ayer’s Villagers, Life on the Water is Fine
Problems of the Aral Sea Showcased
TASHKENT, Uzbekistan (Asia Water Wire) – Over two hundred photographs, paintings and sculptures that line the halls of the Tashkent House of Photography depict the Aral Sea in its pristine best – and its modern day plight.
This cliff that was once submerged in the Aral Sea now shows the shrinking sea's previous water levels (photography by Shahnoza Karimbabaeva).
The brighter sides of the display depict what the Aral used to be until a few decades ago – crystal clear waters and a largely un-tampered landscape that used to be haven for many rare animals, bird and fish species.
The exhibition, entitled “From Barsa-Kelmes to Vozrozhdeniye,” – roughly translating as “from the land of no return to renaissance” – is part of the efforts to raise awareness about the deteriorating situation of the Aral Sea.
Barsa-Kelmes, an island off the north-western shore of the Aral lies in Kazakhstan and has a sanctuary which is home to the Asiatic wild ass, Persian gazelle and several other species.
The other island Vozrozhdeniye is shared by Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and used to be a test site for Soviet biological weapons – anthrax, tularemia, plague, typhus, Q fever, botulinum toxin, and Venezuelan equine encephalitis.
Bash on Water Marked Royal Milestone
BANGKOK (IPS) - When the sun set on June 12, the gently flowing Chao Phraya river, which undulates past this sprawling city, reclaimed for an hour its role as the cradle of Thai culture. 
Oarsmen rowed the royal barges down the Chao Phraya River past the Grand Palace during the celebrations marking the Thai monarch's 60 years on the throne (picture taken from The Nation newspaper).
FM Radio Series Wades Into Gender Question
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (Asia Water Wire) - Sound of water trickling from a tap, jingling bangles cling against metal pitchers and goats bleat in the backdrop to indicate a rural setting where life is seemingly slow and easy.
Rural women still have to toil everyday under harsh conditions just to get water.
Artists Nurture Tomorrow's Environmentalists
TASHKENT, Uzbekistan (Asia Water Wire) – A classroom of toddlers up to twelve-year-olds in the Uzbek capital represents the next generation of “greens” that some artists are trying to nurture. 
Poet and journalist Raim Farhadi with his young artists showing their masterpieces on environmental concerns.
'Soon, the Aral Sea Will Only Be in Pictures'
This painting by Rafael Matevosyan, titled "Laid Up For Eternity" shows abandoned ships on sands where the Aral Sea used to be in its bigger, healthier days.
'Soon, the Aral Sea Will Only Be in Pictures'
TASHKENT, Uzbekistan (Asia Water Wire) – “We cannot save the Aral and you will be able to see it only in pictures,” claims Uzbek painter Rafael Matevosyan, whose work has portrayed Central Asia's shrinking and dying Aral Sea for more than 40 years.
Matevosyan, 82, came to the Aral -- an inland sea between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan -- in 1962 and has since depicted it in hundreds of paintings.
