Central Asia: Water and Conflicts
Article from: OGEL 2 (2010), in Kazakhstan
Introduction
Central Asia is blessed with abundant natural resources, including oil, gas, coal and fresh water, but we can certainly say that Central Asia is defined best by its relationship with the most important resource: water. In fact, water is such an essential element of the region's identity that once, Central Asia was known in classical Islamic texts as Mawaraunnahr, which means Transoxiana, the land in between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, or, literally, the land on the other side of the Oxus River, the classical name used by Islamic geographers for the Amu Darya ...