Communicating the Issues of the Aral Sea Basin Long-Term Vision or the Aral Sea Basin the Aral Sea Basin Management Model (ASB-MM)

The collapse of the Soviet Union and the subsequent political and economic separation of the countries of the Aral Sea (i.e., the Central Asian republics) have changed the situation with respect to shared management of the basin water resources dramatically. The countries were very quick to identify and develop new political structures based on their own national identities and entrance into the global arena, while at the same time they were under extreme pressure to avoid economic collapse. These changes and developments led to a situation of transition from existing agreements and operational policies for water sharing in the Aral Sea Basin towards a situation based on the diverging interests of the individual states and their main water users. This situation became quickly recognized by many scientists and water and irrigation works managers in the region, who started to report on the dangers of this new situation and the short term negative impacts this would have to the, still mainly irrigated agriculture based, economies of the countries in the region.