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Uzbekistan
Despite the Lifting of the Ban, Caviar Problems Far from Over
By Marina Kozlova
TASHKENT, April 24 (IPS/AWW) – Happy days are here again for caviar lovers worldwide as the export ban meant to protect the sustainability of this prized delicacy has been lifted recently. But environmentalists are not optimistic, saying that the ban and its subsequent lifting did not really make a dent in the illegal harvesting and sale of caviar.
Hospitals Seek Immediate ‘Water Treatment’
By Marina Kozlova
TASHKENT, Mar 15 (IPS) – The lack of clean water and efficient sewerage system are threatening the health of patients in Tashkent hospitals, not to mention the rest of the province’s population.
Tired of Poor Sewerage
TASHKENT, Dec 29 (Asia Water Wire) - “I dread heavy rain! When it comes, water from cesspits floods our yard because the cesspits cannot absorb all the liquid then,” says Farogat, a 65 year-old resident of the Uzbeki capital.
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. 
Farmers Push for Aral-Friendly Cotton Variety
NUKUS, Uzbekistan (Asia Water Wire) - Kubei Artykov knows that the cotton variety he has planted for the past six years in a small plot near his home is not a popular one. Still, he believes that the crop, known as Aral 1, could help prevent the Aral Sea from completely drying up and continuing to shrink – and allow Uzbekistan to continue being a major cotton producer.
Artykov, who is from the Khojeli district of Karakalpakstan, is just one of a handful of farmers who persists in planting the hardy cotton variety in this Central Asian country.
He does not need to water the crops all throughout the growing period and these crops would not need to irrigated by water drawn from the already shrunken Aral Sea, in sharp contrast to cotton grown on irrigated plantations in the region.
Aral Sea 'Island' a Health 'Time Bomb'
NUKUS, Uzbekistan (Asia Water Wire) - Until about 15 years ago, very little was known about the Vozrozhdeniye Island on the Aral Sea.
Forests Rising on Bottom of Shrunken Aral Sea
WHAT USED TO BE THE ARAL SEABED (Asia Water Wire) -- Forty years ago, the depth of the site in the Aral Sea where workers are now planting forests as part of a joint German-Uzbek project was more than 20 metres. To get there, one needs to drive through 70 kilometres of scorched sand strewn with seashells. This, after all, used to be the seabed. 
German and Uzbek scientists map out to make forests grow out of the dry Aral Sea region.
But the areas where the environmental damage and desertification around the shrunken Aral Sea is most evident is today also the site of attempts to ease their negative impact. Workers are busy planting shrubs that can survive in this kind of hostile setting, ease erosion and create forests of sorts that improve the climate, landscape -- and hopefully, the overall environment as well.
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.
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.
