Comparative Research Design - The Politics of Water Institutional Reform in Neopatrimonial States - page 54

The state of economic development not only determines the financial means available for
maintenance of water facilities, funding of research, or payment of qualified experts. It also
determines structural conditions such as the significance of agriculture, the main water user
world wide. In less developed countries, agriculture is of more importance than in developed
countries with a significant industrial sector. Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan face economic condi
tions and constraints similar to many other developing countries. Concerning economic indica
tors, reliable data for the 1990s are not available from the IFIs or UN organizations; therefore
the table refers only to more recent data.
Both countries are relatively small, landlocked states (see Figure 7). As mountainous
states, the geographic conditions impede economic activity. The population density varies in
both countries between less populated mountain areas (down to 3 6 persons/km²) and densely
populated valleys (up to 70 77 persons/km²). More than half of the population lives in rural
areas.
Figure 7: Map of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan
Source: Breu 2006: 3.
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are the poorest countries of the former Soviet Union (FSU). Even
when they were part of the Soviet Union, they belonged to the least developed periphery. At
the end of the 1980s, the Tajik SSR received almost 50% of its budget from Moscow and was
dependent on material and energy imports from other republics (Jones Luong 2003: 27). Today
both countries are ranked as low income countries according to World Bank criteria. Concern